When Half Gods Go—The Gods Arrive

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1942, Page 4

When Half Gods Go —The Gods Arrive

I WONDER how many readers of the novel "Other Gods," by Pearl Buck, of "Good Earth" fame, have noticed a remarkable resemblance oetween the national lionising of her central figure and the amazing elevation of Lindbergh after his transatlantic flight. Pearl Buck's young inan was an obscure member of a British mountaineering expedition in Asia. Just as the expedition was nbout to abandon its attempt on a Ijreat peak, this young American, a born mountaineer, climbed it by himi:elf. When the news reached the L'nited States the nation rose at him. On his return, having collected a charming American wife on the ■vay, he became the man of the hour, ,ust as Lindbergh was. The book is ,in impressive study in national psychology. Depressed by the slump and the general disillusionment, the American people longed for somefhing worthwhile to admire, and here was a fine, clean specimen of young American manhood who had done something big.