"SHOW DOWN."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 75, 28 March 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

"SHOW DOWN."

"M. ESCOTT'S" ACHIEVEMENT.

A novel which everybody interested in New Zealand writers will read is "Show Down," (Chatto and Windus), by M. Escott. Having read it they will want to talk about it, for it will not leave them-—as so many novels do— indifferent. "Show Down" is the story of an English-born New Zealander, a man who, after hard work as a farmhand, is farming 011 his own account when lie meets, in Auckland, a young Englishwoman, .well-to-do and cultured. They are married, antl go to live on his farm in the Waikato. There are between them differences of breeding and social.position, and these, plus the fact that she is always able to pay for luxuries which he cannot afford, make it certain that their headlong love affair will not always run smoothly. Mutual adjustments might have been made but for the presence in the district of a wealthy Englishman, of the gentlemanfarmer type, and a philanderer to boot. Ultimately that which begins as a flirtation becomes much more, and the farmer's marriage is wrecked. As the couple had earlier agreed that eac.h was to be "free" (that is, to break their marriage vows), and both had used their freedom, tho wreck was not altogether surprising.

Tho story is told throughout by the farmer, and told with intense vigour and lucidity, so that the reader is, as it were, listening to it rather than reading it, and becomes in turn sympathetic, pitying, and indignant, occasionally embarrassed by tho man's frankness, and yet always anxious to hear more. And at the end the reader is left wondering, perplexed and angry at human stupidity and obstinacy. That these are his feelings is a tribute to the author's skill in "getting inside" the mind of tho chief character, who, though manly and clear-sighted in general, is weak and muddled in his attitude to his wife. Within its limits "Show Down" is intensely real, but the limits are narrow. Virtually ,there are only three people in it, and the lives of these three we see in only one aspect. But the authors imaginative insight and literary craftsmanship aro such that "Show Down' will be judged abroad on its merits, and not as "a New Zealand novel." It is a considerable achievement, and it increases the stature of its author, "M. Escott," whose pen-name is scarcely a disguise.