ALPHABETS AND BIRTHDAYS

Plodding along in a Time-centered world of dates and numbers and months and letters we meet a population in the work from which this volume draws its title of animals, feelings, activities, typewriters, horses and hills. Everybody has a birthday or wishes he could or would have one even if he does, indeed, have one. A Birthday Book, written for Picasso's son, starts with January 1st and progresses through the year 365 days strong. All Sunday collects impressions of life in Mallorca at the beginning of World War 1. These plus four others comprise the seventh volume of the Yale Edition of the Unpublished Westings of Gertrude Stein. In spite of the foggy and repetitious style which for this reader obscures the alleged meaning, there is a Stein clique. And that is that.