Communist repression may not be the burning issue it was in 1954, but Stout's insights on the importance of freedom and the withering effects of the police state are still worth discussing. The topical interest that has been lost because of the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe is restored to some extent by the current mess in what was Yugoslavia. Stout has much to say about what was wrong with life under Tito, and it would be natural to explore the cause and effect relationship between the blight of those years and the present obsession of Yugoslavians with killing each other. In addition, the murder of Marko Vukcic is a classic example of 1950s-style terrorism, and as such has many intriguing points of similarity to, and difference from, the terrorism of the 1990s.

Wolfe's return to his boyhood home offers rich material for analysis, as does...