The Night Walk and Other Stories

British educator and contributor to the Left Review , Upward brought out his first novel, Journey to the Border , in the 1930s. In the present collection, nine carefully crafted pieces, some previously published in England, hover between surrealist fiction and political meditation. Most echo the author's fervent Marxist convictions and tend to be pointed with moral meaning. ``From a Seaside Notebook'' comprises a group of political prose sketches, one of which, ``I Dreamt of a Valley,'' reports on an antinuclear demonstration in the style of a medieval visionary. ``The Interview'' describes a journalist's paranoia as she stalks a cabinet minister known for his hawkish sentiments. In ``The White Pinafored Black Cat,'' a clever feline seems to know that her mistress means to have her killed. The dream format of ``An Old-Established School'' hauntingly captures the anxiety of an aging schoolmaster, forced to teach chemistry, a subject he doesn't know. Should art serve the ends of propaganda? An old man and a prostitute/painter argue the issue in the title story. These pensive tales beautifully explore the bonds between the empowered and the powerless. (August)