ALL THE BEST IN THE CARIBBEAN INCLUDING PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.

By SydneyClark 'l2 and Margaret Zellers. NewYork: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1972. 420pp. With illustrations and maps. $8.95.

This new edition carries straight on from where the last (1969) left off. The first appeared in 1948, and the Caribbean has constantly stimulated Sydney Clark, no neophyte, for a quarter of a century. After many sojourns, some three or four months long, he is still fascinated by the islands so piquantly individual and by the inhabitants.

What's new? The book has changed its size, format, emphasis, and arrangement of contents. At each chapter ending or area coverage, conveniently one finds facts about hotels, restaurants, and shops. Mr. Clark puts in a special plea for the Caribbean at any season except winter. Active in island government for many years, a constant visitor on business and pleasure, Margaret Zellers has ferreted out new information. The first chapter concentrates on the Caribbean today. The 1969 edition began with questions and answers about vacation procedures no longer much needed because of increased savoir faire. Information about hotels and restaurants has been updated. Samples: (1) In the Cayman Islands the Rum Point Club, run by a couple of watersport enthusiasts, has 14 double rooms but only one bath for each two rooms. (2) Missing in the new edition are 1969 warnings about night noises, barking dogs, braying donkeys, and crowing cocks outside the Hotel Castelhaiti in Port-au-Prince and introduced are more details about every conceivable quiet luxury. (3) The 1969 has Prostitutes in its index, and we learn that among after-dark gaieties in Curasao is "a prostitute village called Campo Alegre, heavily stocked with foreign harlots only." The 1972 edition with no Prostitutes, foreign or domestic, in its index informs us that night life centers in the Hilton and Festival Hall providing concerts. Gambling houses post square signs: "Gentlemen are required to wear jackets and tie." (4) New for the 1972 is in St. Maarten the Mullet Bay Beach Hotel, run by the Ford family, 502 rooms, 150 acres, golf, three restaurants (two outdoors, one indoors), two cocktail lounges, swimming pool bar, casino, ritzy shops, snorkeling: a luxury resort par excellence.

This new edition alerts you about 1972 tourist amenities for the sophisticated and about traps for the naive in the Caribbean, changed markedly since 1969 and not always for the better. Is $8.95 too much? Restless and imaginative, you may get $100 worth of pleasure just reading why Mr. Clark views the Caribbean as much more than just sunshine and sandy beaches. With sophisticated information, you may waltermitty yourself into active or dolce-far-niente roles. Clark and Zellers know that as hero you may not desire deluxe hotels for your play but rather clean, friendly, and decent lodgings and entertainment at old-fashioned and honest prices. Leaving Clark unread, you might return to the States muttering with Mark Twain, "It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing—I used to be a good boy."