SETTING UP DEMOCRACY IN SICILY

...His town was on the seashore so that rations could be eked out with fish...

...Italians have charming, lovable, and frequently very amusing character parts...

...Hersey's view, "the thing which determined whether we Americans would be successful in that toughest of all jobs was nothing more or less than the quality of the men who did the administering...

...Here Italians enter as chief actors.- The author places the blame for Adano's black market squarely on the Americans...

...With Europe demoralized by years of strain, the best men may not be able to prevent bad matters from becoming worse...

...Armed with a love for Italy, a desire to introduce the best of America, and a practical understanding of how this can be done, he makes a fine job of running the town...

...The fundamental importance of careful selection of personnel can hardly be stressed too much...

...Joppolo used or would care to use...

...Hersey dwelt more on the basic difficulties of the situation, his plea would have been strengthened...

...We can at least try to see to it that failure does not come from the inadequacy of our administrators whose appointment is our responsibility alone...

...In the end these bring about his recall, though not before he has given the crowning touch to his work by securing a bell for Adano to replace one whose removal by the Fascist government was deeply felt by the community...

...Their truly hard lot can be relieved by shipping in food and by improving the distribution of domestic supplies, a course unsuccessfully pursued by the Fascist government which used much more stringent methods than Maj...

...While the author appears to oversimplify their task, it is healthy to concentrate, as he does, on our own weaknesses...

...But Italy, like so many other countries in wartime, had long had a large and flourishing black market, and in Italy, as in a number of other countries, illegal consumption on a considerable scale went far to explain the very small quantities of food available to urban consumers who could not afford to buy in the black market or who were not supplied by relatives and friends in the country...

...Reviewed by Lois Bacon MAJOR JOPPOLO, U.S.A., a young Italian-American formerly employed as a clerk in the Department of Taxation and Finance and then in the Sanitation Department of New York City, is named senior civil affairs officer in the town of Adano in Sicily, representing the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory...

...Mm Hersey's interesting novel focuses attention on one of the major problems of any occupation authority—the problem of providing the right kind of administrators for the liberated or conquered areas...

...In Mr...

...In many cities and towns the food situation could not have been so easily handled...

...His troubles come chiefly from the stupidity and ill-will of his fellow-Americans...

...Joppolo was lucky as well as good...

...The occupation authorities are not likely to meet with less opposition on the part of producers and others who benefit from the black market, even if it could be assumed that the peoples of occupied Europe would welcome foreign administration, no matter how decent, as readily as did the people of Adano...

...Undoubtedly Allied money brought a sharp rise in the already high prices...

...In emphasis of the point, Americans are the heroes and villains of his piece...

...Had Mr...

...He found five carloads of wheat, the great staple of the Italian diet...