Hissing Taies … is a good illustration of [Romain Gary's] copious and lively imagination; and though his facility does not always serve him equally well, since the stories are quite uneven, the collection as a whole is remarkably provocative and enjoyable.

Most of the stories provide us with some melodramatic villain to hiss at. M. Gary revives successfully the old-fashioned story—like those of O. Henry, Frank Stockton, or some of Robert Louis Stevenson—that has a definite anecdotal point, perhaps even some twist at the end, rather than merely presenting a slice of life in the style of flat realism.

In "A Craving for Innocence" a Frenchman, aspiring to escape the sordid materialism of civilization, goes to Tahiti. But when he discovers some unknown paintings of Gauguin, all his commercial lusts return, and he can think only of getting back to France to make a killing. On the...