The Savage Place

. This arresting novel about the sexual impotence of a young man is a beautifully balanced exploration of the jungles that can exist in the mind of an apparently normal individual. In his story about Andrew Williams, a young American, traveling and working in Spain and France, and back in New York, Mr. Arden explores the psychological effect of impotence, revealing how it colors Williams' entire life, changing him from a confident person liked and admired by members of both sexes to an introverted, frightened youth fleeing one environment after another, and, most of all, himself. I desperate flight from this problem proves to be no solution. It merely sends him from one crisis into another, until he senses at last the roots of his weakness and recognizes, then finds, the answer. A theme such as this might have been merely sensational in the hands of a less skillful writer. But Leon Arden has treated this important, unusual topic with candor, good taste, and compassionate understating.