A Bell for Adano is a book written by a young war correspondent who has proven himself as a reporter and now wishes to extend his range by becoming a novelist. A group discussion might examine the question: Which voice is dominant here, the voice of a writer accustomed to producing the latest information on a war still in progress, or that of a more reflective writer trying to see how soldiers and civilians in the wake of the campaign in Sicily have been affected by recent events? How evident to the practiced reader is the haste with which the book was written? Hersey's eyes, ears, and voice have already been developed by his experiences in China (1939), and in the Solomons, where he covered the opening battles of the Pacific War.

How well has he understood the people he met in Sicily? He has had only...