CURRENT BOOKS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24547, 21 April 1945, Page 5

CURRENT BOOKS

MAN’S SEARCH A House in Bryaneton Square. Iter Algernon Cecil. Eyre and Bpottiswoode. 360 pp.This is not every reader’s meat and drink. It demands the will, and the capacity to follow a sustained out rarely straightforward course of reflection, and that, moreover, upon themes converging—by way of literature. philosophy, and religion—i® o ” the goal of restless mans unending search—for the certitudes, if they exist, of his being; for their promise, if he holds to them, of at least a heart of peace in his stressed life. In addition, the reader (to be sensuously as well as intellectually rewarded) must have an ear for a grave, cadenced style—perhaps not, it may be added, without some faintly tedious mannerisms. On such conditions this is a book that readers will welcome ana never let go. Mr Cecil pursues his own search tnrougn tne rooms, each appropriated to a particular set of historical associations, to a particular view of man and his freedom and his destiny, of the “house in Bryanston Square,” and at last, when the house (which is no metaphor) is blasted by a bomb, carries it on to its end under the naked stars. The voices of Voltaire, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Pascal, with whom (among others) Mr Cecil has discoursed, die away; and the answer he is seeking comes from Christ, the saints, and the Roman keepers of their tradition. The reader who has accompanied Mr Cecil so far may accept his answer, or not; he is absolute about it—total Yes or total No is the choice he offers and the only one he admits. But those who reject either the answer or Mr Cecil’s strict alternative will not complain that he has led them so far, fruitlessly. POPULATION Race Suicide. By G. F. McClcary, M.D. Allen and Unwin. 136 pp. Dr. McCleary has written illuminatingly on this subject before. His new book is to be recommended generally to all who have realised that the facte and causes of falling population levels cannot be left out of account in considering any of the problems of economic and social security that beset the world to-day. It is particularly to be recommended for an account .or Dumont’s fundamental thesis of “social capillarity,” which attributes modern population trends to the disharmony in communities where political equality has been achieved- but not economic and social equality; and for its account of the Myrdals’ work in Sweden and the policies accepted fromit by the Swedish Government. McCleary, it may be added, unhesitatingly adopts Beveridge’s view, (which is pf course not Beveridge’s only, among economists) that a national system of children’s allowances Is essential. BRITISH POLITICS Why Not Trust the Tories? By “Celticns" (Aneurln Sevan, M.P.). Gollancz. 89 PR. New Zealand readers who want to see what issues will be contested In the British General Election will find the Left view of them vigorously stated by Mr Bevaiu It is an .interesting point in his argument that the White Paper technique, which the Coalition has abundantly used as a means to clarify evidence and prepare a basis for legislative action and which has been widely commended, is really only a trieje to delay action, lull the demand for it, and ultimately cheat it. N.Z. AT SCHOOL Half Lengths. By F. L. Combs. Progressive Publishing Society. 133 pp. Mr Combs’s 13 pieces will be relished by everyone with an eye for a close, lively, and humorous likeness, whether of himself (which may require some rueful candour) or of his neighbour. He has practised his observation and portraiture mostly in or near the schools, among teachers, pupils, committeemen, and others. Hence come his comic stow of the teacher who never realised what springs of far from disinterested action he had released when he campaigned for the new school baths; his portraits in contrast, between the bookish paragon and the winning (in two senses) rapscallion; and the spirited sketch of a school janitor. A few pieces open a wider view of New Zealand life, as shrewd and kindly. SOLDIERING IS FUN Here Was Glory. By J. F. DeUmtn. Australasian Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd. 95 pp. Every war, every army, produces its books of rhymes to show that soldiering is fun (as well as filth, fatigue, fear, and futility); and “Here Was Glory’’ is an Australian statement v£ the proposition, slick, cynical, slangy, and sometimes, for a change, sentimental. If there’s no other cause for cheerfulness, the soldier can always start “Post-war Plannin’ I’ll buy a- big alarm clock an’ I'll set It fer reveille At that same un’oly 'our I’m woken now; An’ while It’s wildly whirrin’ I shall calmly drowse an’ dally, Takln’ not the slightest notice uv th’ row. But why Mr Dettman and his fellowworkers in the field of colloquial jingle strain so hard to be phonetic, let them answer to Apollo. “ ’Our,” for the love of Mikej I