Men & Insects

THE GRASSHOPPERS COME--David Garnett--Brewer, Warren & Putnam ($2.50).

In all David Garnett's books a Meaning lurks around the corner, but it will not bite you, it is muzzled, and it will not show its head unless you whistle for it. The Grasshoppers Come begins and ends with a description of the migratory habits of grasshoppers or locusts; the story is about airplanes, a long-distance flight.

Mrs. Beanlands, suddenly dowered by widowhood with money and a chance to gesture, thought it would be romantic to make a non-stop flight from England to Hong-Kong. Adventurer Wilmot Shap, eyeing her fortune, encouraged her, went along as navigator, hoped the trip would end in a wedding. Pilot Jimmy Wreaks, scarred and one-eyed from crashes, went because he was paid to fly the ship, thought they had a good chance of coming through. But they did not. Somewhere over Eastern Turkestan oil began to spray back from the engine; Jimmy had to make a forced landing in a rocky valley. The plane was wrecked; Jimmy's foot was hurt; the others were all right.

They divided the last sandwiches; Mrs. Beanlands and Shap trudged off through the desert to find help; Jimmy sat and waited. They never came back. After several days Jimmy nearly despaired. Then clouds of migratory grasshoppers dropped from the sky. He cooked and ate them, kept life going till a cruising Chinese pilot saw his beacon. Author Garnett ends his story thus: "When they fell in waterless desert places they died; where they passed they left desert ; they sprouted wings and flew. Their seed sprang again in wingless armies from the earth. They had no reason and little that might be called instinct. All their movements are due to the heat of the sun. They are thermotropic."

The Author-- David Garnett's father Edward was a critic, his mother Constance a translator of the great Russians, so David set out to be an economic botanist, discovered a new kind of mushroom. A conscientious observer, he served during the War on the Friends' War Victims Relief Expedition. Then he gave up botany, started a bookshop with Francis Birrell. When Francis Meynell launched the None such Press, Garnett became a partner, later sold out his share in the bookshop to have more time to write. His wife Rachel has illustrated several of his books (including The Grasshoppers Come) with woodcuts. Other books: Lady Into Fox, A Man in the Zoo, Go She Must!, No Love.

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