LIFE CLASS

This is a unique sort of autobiography — not a complete story of a life of contradictions, but a slice out of that life, and an intimate glimpse behind the scenes in American hotels — as seen by Bemelmans, — bus boy, waiter, assistant to the manager of the banquet hall, etc. First a brief sketch of a Tyrolean background, a childhood in Bavaria, failure in successive schools — and the chance to go to America. Then — life backstage, and sidelights on hotel patrons, done with tongue in cheek and the eye of an observer who sees below the surface. There is too a close-up of the administration and the forces that ciled the works. A mad world — but Bemelmans, though never quite at one with it, knew it intimately — and conveys it in unforgettable pictures and subtle humor. I loved it. Remember his My War With The United States? This has the same quality of poking fun at himself.