NEW NOVELS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 3

NEW NOVELS

nt De-<1 Syifa’t By George Barker. John Leu. «». i-;2 pp. Mos: ’• ll;;d this a rather aupiea-'-"- - ■■i=h l .v overwritten novel. K -i of a poe.. up-;t. pa wit 6 “•* : ytoience of fiprets-' r; : \— ; •' 1; - in tae autnor's •oenu i • take* himsslf very Sricuel- <-“i- an imperious demand c.t s. i .e-icer to clo toe same. The novel c.r: ,v n.anes an impact, hut it ■"-■■• - J ,- e cat.ed a success. For on e tr.i .- i: •' .asking in reality; one can sta‘- w ■ '■-■ taat tne author never livfd ■ r=- : '« these experiences in the crde: tr. which they occur. The author’s re.-.v v.outd no doubt be that i»is net to be a realistic novel but a o novel, and a novel i-ith a :'•■?= But tne thesis suffers front Lie tn -eaa y ot the story. Put baldly. s "ry concerns a young nsr. che pc w loves and marries t girl o ; : c.’l-es a jealous hatred o f ’he ’ ■ : : ‘ to to be born to his wife. ■ weeks be ore the birth of his ■’ r secured by her beaufjfij- «.-d ;«.)■ e friend, a creature of milita.—. m nitty.’ Returning to bis wi.e. he rods she has guessed at his infif’r' v T.ie other woman appears st the house, melodramatically, in a Hurricane—iu ‘ as a symbolic “dead seagull ' crushes through the window pane—to claim the husband from his wife. At tni= point the wife announced that her ent’d is about to be born It is corn dead, and the wife dies soon ac-’i-wsr ls. pronouncing a curse upon her h-J--band’s mistress as she dies. I'- then transpires that the poet’s m: tress is also pregnant! The fins! section of the novel is a series cf reflections on these stark events addressed bv the poet to Sebastian, •he stillborn son. The thesis running through the whole is that "love is the terriblr- sccntina! calamity." The book is in rar. a discussion of the nature o Sacred and Profane Love. One is reminded of Thornton Wilder's “The Skin c Cur Tee'h." which sees man a alternating between the two types cf womanhood—the Mother and the Siren. But George Barker goes further, and sees both types as governed only by the reproductive urge; this time we are reminded of Shaw's "Man nd Superman." But once again Barker goes further than Shaw, and returns to the idea that love iwhich is sex := original sin He continually evokes tie idea of Eve the temptress, who lures nan to his and her own ontructlnr.. and yearns for the unfallen state in which the act of sex had no more significance than a sneeze and the female went about her work in het original state of grace "unaware that she was again pregnant."

Many readers will sense in this novel an underlying disgust with sex. a subconscious dislike of women, and a futile tendency to repine against the conditions of life. The book is—surprisingly—a Book Society recommendation. but it is doubtful whether it will be a popular choice, although every reader is bound to admire, if unwillingly, the author’s gift of vivid, and violent language.

Thj Brave Bulls. By Tom Le*. Heinemann. 254 pp.

Here is a lively novel set in modern Mexico and written by an American painter who has turned novelist for the first time. He is thoroughly qualified to write a novel about bull-fight-ing, for he was born in El Paso and his familiarity with bullrings began at the age of eight when he saw his first "corrida.’’ He writes an exciting and colourful tale which combines human interest with complete technical information about the fascinating, it bloody, sport of bull-fighting. Each chapter in the book is headed by a striking black-and-white decoration of a buil. a matador, or other suitable emblem, and the inside covers of the book contain a series of illustrations o: the different positions of the fighting cane as it is swung by the "torero,’’ All these decorations and the title cage painting are the work of the author.

Marise. By Stephen Uster. Teter Davies. 218 pp. Stephen Lister is back in the delightful village of St Monique and his readers will be pleased to renew acquaintance with the lovable old Father Delorme. his spinster sister, forbidding in appearance but with heart of gold, Manus, the fisherman, Lentrua, the fierce Corsican bar proprietor, and all the other villagers. They will also enjoy meeting Marise. a baby girl who shall not be otherwise identified for fear of spoiling a good story. Mr Lister takes every opportunity for a cynical rebuke to his own countrymen or his French friends, but behind it all there is a gentie humour. He * identifies himself with the world and all its frailties, but he has .a simple philosophy he is determined to put across, and he cares not a snap of the fingers what others may think. For those who know Mr Lister’s books “Marise" will need no praise. Those so far unacquainted with St. Monique will probably find that "Marise" will encourage them to search for earlier novels in the same setting. Wham ’ Athene Laved. By George Baker.' James Barrie. 245 pp. Bellerophon. Perseus, and Andromeda, Hellas, Ephyra and Lykla. are names and places which may bring Sinful memories of schooldays. Hera sy are again, but there is nothing painful or boring about this novel. George Baker’s third with a classical Greek background. The reader needs no classical knowledge to enjoy this light story of Bellerophon’s travels, travails, loves and adventures, but the classical scholar will find little fault with the detail. Mr Baker seems to nave found his metier with a type of novel which provides a pleasant change from the usual light fiction.' tope of Earth, By Margaret Lee Rotf> beck. Peter Davies. AM pp. This novel has for long been a best*Uer in America, and will obviously ** much in demand wherever it is Published. It combines romance, sex, adventure and an edifying moral tone. Jp in the best popular manner. Its theme is the unimportance of material *®alth. A supposedly wealthy old •wn dies in Philadelphia about the Buddle of the nineteenth century, when his will comes to be react it is found that he has gone bankrupt jand bas left nothing to his children—ex«Pt noble sentiments. ‘To each of my children I have bequeathed the richest *gacy ever offered by the world; to America/’ etc. So his youngest Stephen and his little goldenoaired wife Amoret have to leave their world in Philadelphia and wavel to Illinois, where they learn to their way as best they can in a pioneer existence. The dainty Amoret turns out to have the real stuff ® her; Stephen does not acquit him- *« so well. But finally he sees the “Jpt ?nd comes to understand the wi»r° m of the old man’s words. The story ••typical saga of America, containthe most accepted American jwlk beliefs, and presenting a vivid conventional picture of the pioneering *s* of the nineteenth century, complete with Abe Lincoln in the flesh. The Commoners. By Fred Kitchen. Dent 317 pp. is a first novel by the author w;-?° ngs °* Sherwood” which was a •jjjes of English country sketches. and brother to the Ox” which told the wy of Mr Kitchen’s life as a boy on •arm. “The Commoners* is awo • country novel. The time is the turn 2 ‘he nineteenth century, the years 2,,^,enclosures, when clashes belandlords and commoners were /’Wat and dramatic. It tells a lively v e and tr afledy. of poaching, h ’ghwaymen. and duels. The vSSff* full of salty humour and JjJW- There is warmth end subXSSS* *° t tkis novel which can be res'~/2* nde d as good and unusual, if entertainment. DRIFTERS (Hodder and 221 pp.) by Thoma, Thompr 3 gun-packing Western. The sentence sets the tone: “He suddenly, as he always did. EruS I “ nd reached first tor the d-. “M placed under the blanket—a gesture." The tale involves SSL on the XR ranch which, hy barbed wire, carrie, on r fight against the whole MsrtZJyuut Community, a bitter bloodS rav»?? tw . eeß ‘wo men, and the right auCz, 1 ?* sentimental interest MOd* .— 0 between the shooting.