NEW FICTION

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26515, 1 September 1951, Page 3

NEW FICTION

The Town and the City. By John Kerouac. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 499 PP.

Here is another monumental American family novel. Tne standard ot the writing is, on the whole, quite nigh, and in America comparisons are being made with Thomas Wolfe. Mr Kerouac is of French-Canadian stock, as is Mother Martin in his novel. The Martin family, who live in a small Massachusetts town, consists of parents and eight children—a rather unwieldy size of family for a novelist to handle. They are represented as a typical wholesome normal family made a little larger than life-size by the author s sentimental mysticism: “This is the Martin family, the elders and the young ones, even the little ones, the flitting ghost-ends of a brood, who will grow and come to attain size and seasons and huge presence like the others, and burn savagely across days and nights of livitig, and give brooding rare articulation to the poor things of life, and the rich dark things too.” Like so many American families, they cultivate the Mother Legenu C'weii. that’s the wav you are, Ma,” some son would speak up softly. “What the heck—mothers are like that") Mr Kerouac uses Thomas Wolfe’s cumulative method of piling detail on detail to give a very thorough impression of small-town American family-life. As the family grow up, they are drawn to the big cities, especially New York, and the coming of the war finally drives them utterly apart. Torn from their roots, they xJrift and find no sure set of values to live by. In his postwar scenes froih the lives of unhappy modern young people Mr Kerouac is at his best, though he finds no very profound reason to give for the unhappiness and the instability. Nevertheless the lively realistic description and the healthy satire he writes make the book excellent reading.

A Game for Empires. A Biographical Novel (1793-1798). By Pearl Frye. Gollancz. 467 pp. This historical novel is the product of 20 years’ reading in the life and times of Nelson. All the characters, down td the most minor ones, have actually existed. The author has used the letters of Nelson as the foundation for her novel. “Whenever humanly possible,” she says, “he has spoken in his own words.” She appends a formidable bibliography at the end of her book. Yet in spite of all this panoply of learning and scholastic scruple, the novel does not quite succeed. The battles are vividly described, but the charabters do not really live, and the narrative is rather ierky. One cotild perhaps have dispensed with some of the authenticity in favour of a little more imagination. However, the colour and the atmosphere of the period are there, and lovers of historical novels should not be daunted.

Jungle Chase. By Roy Farran. Collins. 254 pp.

Here is a good adventure story written by a born man of action. Farran's “Winged Dagger” will be remembered as one of the best memoirs of the last war. Since writing that book, the author has spent two years on construction work in Rhodesia, which provides the setting for his new novel. It is full of authentic detail about life in the unexplored jungle of the Sebungwe, an unhealthy region to the south-east of the Zambesi. The story concerns the friendship between two men, a young mining engineer prospecting for coal and an elderly ivory-hunter whom he unexpectedly meets in the jungle. Their lives become irrevocably bound together when .it transpires that the elder man is a fugitive from justice. The drama becomes one of loyalty and honour heightened by romantic interest when the younger man falls in love with the daughter of the older man. Lions, buffaloes, and other wild animals play their parts also, yet there is nothing extravagantly unreal or impossible about the novel. The narrative is exciting and well handled throughout. Unseen Array. By Winifred Peck. /Faber. 247 pp.

Lady Peck is another novelist clever at marshalling an assorted group of characters. Her latest novel is a comedy of manners with a spice of mystery to it. Her setting is a derelict old house in Scotland named “Shadows” with a reputation for being haunted. Long untenanted, it suddenly becomes the scene of great activity. The storv is well managed and entertaining (especially for those who like to see the doings of the less reputable spiritualistic cults exposed), lightened with a brace of budding romances and darkened, for contrast, with suggestions of evil influences from the past. The Strong Delusion. By James Leasor. Harrap. 256 pp.

This is a first novel, set in Jamaica, and interesting mainly for its cleverly handled and eventful plot. Its central character is a weak man who, having yielded once to the temptation to acquire riches and fame through a treacherous act, brings further disaster upon himself in his effort to avoid the consequences. Much of the characterisation is conventional, but the spectacle of the Fates pursuing a guilty man is always fascinating, and the author shows considerable skill in leading up to his highly dramatie climax.