NEW NOVELS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22557, 12 November 1938, Page 18

NEW NOVELS

Mazo de la Roche : Myron Brinig: Robin Hyde : Nevil Sfaute .

AFTER JALNA Growlli of a Man. By Mazo de la Kcche. Macmillan and Co. Ltd. 377 pp. (8s 6d net.) Has Miss de la Roche so absorbed herself in the affairs of the Whiteoaks in her "Jalna" series that, emerging from them, she cannot yet fully engage her interests and perceptions with any others? Or is it the reviewer who is a little unsettled and at a loss, looking for Renny or Finch or another to enter when he should be attending to Shaw Manifold, or his grandfather, or others of this quite new company? Readers will settle this question for themselves; but it can only be said here that this new story seems to go rather heavily. It is that of the boy Shaw, impelled to self-development and escape by the harsh and uncongenial upbringing given him b.y his grandfather, who is the most vital character in the book. Shaw doggedly drives his purpose to meritorious achievement as a forester; and Canadian forest and snow have never, perhaps, been spread with more filial care and art through the pages of a book. But it is a dogged, righteous fellow that Shaw remains, respectable but slightly tiresome.

sonal charm and perfection within them. Lady Wilson's novel, quietly and minutely—and, it is strangely true, absorbingly—traces the process by which Marion was stirred in her captivity, loosened it, and at last took the step that threw off what remained of it—the restraints of her own habit of mind and emotion. This is a love story, of course, but u love story of extraordinary subtlety, delicacy, and humour. Marion herself is delightfully drawn. The scent of a period which how seems far away is exquisitely evoked.

IRISH AMERICAN May Flavin. By Myron Brinig:. CobdenSanderson. 39G pp. (8/6 net.)

Mr Brinig's English publishers are to be thanked for bringing his admirable work out of America. "May Flavin," the life-story of an IrishAmerican girl, the daughter of a Chicago policeman, steadily holds to its narrative course, unchecked oy passages of analysis and introspection, unhastened by extravagant episcdieal plunges; and Brinig's faculty throwing character and experience into the connexion that makes both significant together is very well exhibited in it. In love, ' in marriage and the raising of her family, in her dependence on the husband won by her singleheartedness, in her independence and integrity when he leaves her, in the independence, again, that directs her still in her own way when the fame of two of her children might have drawn her out of it—always May Flavin, honest, brave, eager, clear-sighted, tenacious, patient, limited, 'is the girl or the woman whose last judgment on life, the best and the worst, is to be, "If you're like me, the good makes up for everything else."

EARLY DAYS IN INDIA Indian Rain. By Winifred Blazey. Michael Joseph Ltd. 319 pp. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.

The exile to India of a young Englishman in the early days of the East India Company launches this interesting novel. Lovat Cleave goes to India with the idea 'of making his fortune and returning as quickly as possible to his native country. But the life of native India grows into his very blood. He marries an Indian woman and "goes native." One of the most fascinating episodes in the book is a pilgrimage undertaken by Cleave and his half-caste son to the mountain regions of northern India in search of the boy's mother. The quality of Kipling's "Kim" is recalled by the author's facility in moving among native customs and habits of mind. Cleave eventually returns to England; but India holds him too strongly, and the end of the book sees him drawn back to its heart.

STUDY OF A WOMAN Lisa Vale. By Olive Hissins Prouty, Hodder and Stoughton. 404 pp, (8s 6d net.) From W. S. Smart.

This is an absorbing study of the mind and life of a modern American woman. Married to a proud, cold, and wealthy man, whom she greatly respects but docs not love, and in love with a man whose greater sensibility and understanding are the props of her private mind, Lisa Vale is beset by family problems created by ultra-modern sons and daughters and the influence of a domineering old mother-in-law. The plot is set in Boston, where appearances are everything; and to conform to appearances while living an inner life of her own is Lisa's exacting necessity. The book has a clear dramatic quality that is well sustained; but its greatest strength is in its characterisation. BIG MONEY Ruined City. By Nevil Shute. Cassell and Co. Ltd. 283 pp. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. ' Not many stories have the refreshing qualities of Mr Shute's. Henry Warren, banker, becomes a cot case in the public hospital of a town sunk in the misery of the Black North; and he realises, for the first time, what their present and their prospects look like to the thousands whose life is shipbuilding, when there are no orders for ships and the yards are silent and empty. And love helps him to see and to feel more sensitively and to give him a grand purpose. Neither realism nor romance is over-emphasised. Comedy is the essential stuff of this story; and it is rapidly developed when v '£.rren, moving with adroit resource in the mazes of political and financial intrigue in Laevatia, wins from the shifty powers of that not-too-fantastic country a huge shipbuilding contract for the "ruined city." Mr Shute has high spirits, lively invention, wit, a charming sense of fun, and a heart to keep an excellent story warm. A JEWISH FAMILY Chosen People. By Seaforth Mackenzie. Jonathan Cape Ltd. .286 pp. Also from Angus and Robertson Ltd., Sydney. ' This book is brilliantly written. The central figure is a Jewess, whose egotism and strong sense of possession, the dominating traits of a strange and forbidding character, are also dominant in the psychological relations of a group of highly sensitive and intelligent persons. The scene is an Australian city; but places are only a dim background to the plot, which newly treats the eternal triangle. A mother hands over to a young daughter a discarded lover but wants to retain her power over both. The result is a curious emotional conflict, which drives the daughter to the verge of suicide.

MARION VERLANDER Late Summer. By Barbara Wilson, Macmillan. 323 pp. (8/6 net.)

"She's so tied to her father, poor thing." Those are the words, spoken at a women's meeting during the Boer War, that introduce Marion Verlander, the heroine of Lady Wilson's novel. Nearly 40, Marion was living within the limits fixed by her devotion to her father and his house. Her type is that which easily accepts limits, regards them as immutable, and achieves a sort of still per-

"STARKIE" AGAIN Nor the Years Condemn. By Robin Hyde. Hurst and Blackett. 352 pp. (8s 6d net) Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. The author has followed the career of her tempestuous "Starkie" out of the army and into civilian life, the discipline and restraints of which are no more acceptable to him than were the restrictions of King's regulations. The irresponsibility that marked his army career persists as he grows older. "Starkie," brave to the point of recklessness,, generous to the point of foolishness, is the same lovable but exasperating personality, . still buoyant' in spirit through many trials of poverty and want during the "great depression," until at last the loss of his young Maori wife and the difficulties of providing for his children drive even him to desperation. How he is saved the reader should be left to learn from the climax of this story, in which Robin Hyde's sense of the dramatic is powerfully active. A GHOST STORY The Traveller's Return. By E. F. Boatman. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 313 pp. This queer, fantastic story is extraordinarily well told. It is designed to show the influence of the spirit of the dead on the lives of the living. The spirit of a steadfast soldier killed in the Great War comes back to the scenes of his former existence. So cleverly is the plot worked and the story told, that the reader is first absorbed in the problem of where fantasy finishes and reality begins and ends in forgetting that in the interest of the narrative.

ANDY OUT OF THE WAY Palace Pier. By Robert Eton. Nicholson and Watson Ltd. 308 pp.

Mr Laurence Meynell, having shaken his readers' nerves with the fierce attack of "The Dandy," puts on his other identity of Robert Eton and writes a sure-to-come-right romance in "Palace Pier," a story very pleasantly told. The ingenuous girl, Sally, falls in love with Andy Fanshaw, an actor, handsome, attractive, but selfish and irresponsible; he makes his weak effort to conquer his weak self, which emerges all the more clearly in his failure; and* Sally sees him, as his wife, and too late, as he really is. Then she meets the man who is worthy of her love and worthily loves her; but Sally is loyal, even where she has mistakenly given her faith. Till Andy is dramatically put out of the way by Mr Eton, the reader will live in anxious hope.

A NOVEL OP TAHITI The Dark River. By Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Chapman and Hall Ltd. 408 pp.

This novel, by the collaborators who made "Mutiny on the Bounty" an impressive piece of dramatic reconstruction, runs beyond drama, perhaps, into the sensationalism and far-fetched coincidence of melodrama. All this is attributable to a plot which is built out of passionate love, the prejudices of race and colour, the secret of a foster-child's parentage, and its tragic consequences. It is enough to say that that is the mechanism of a stirring narrative development. But the greatest merits of this novel are those given to it by the authors' knowledge and presentation of life in Tahiti. The island background is ever-present and ever-vivid.

HEROINE BY KATHLEEN NORRIS Heartbroken Melody. By Kathleen Norris. John Murray. 316 'pp.

Mrs Norris carries her new heroine, Honor, through romantic vicissitudes remarkable for their variety and their number to a conclusion entirely right and welcome. "I never saw such sunshine, nor such trees, nor such a sky," Honor says dreamily, and she feels the grip of Birge's fingers tighten on her own. The end is peace with Honor.