JOAD'S LAST

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27374, 12 June 1954, Page 3

JOAD'S LAST

• M. Joad. Faber A book written by a dying man to hold back the “nwiedgement of intense pain is not ttiy to have the verve and vitality L*®* created in maturity with the *2iiuis of amazing success. But for -ends created by Dr. Joad’s lively ? 2^ 10a3 iT ? nto w itty debates of * Brains Trust” and held by •books that followed them, there Pleasure to be found in this I Objection of one-sided debates. w Joad was a debater, at his best pen unaer# the control of a firm «tion master and subject to the 2“®? of philosophers like Bertrand well and Gilbert Murray. Alone , Putting up straw men for t to knock down, he degenerates peevisnness and petulancy that J»ens his attacks on the follies of 7“ bureaucracy in England. twL j “Brains Trust,” Joad was reforced to meet the arguments men who often held Z" 5 , contrary -to his own or dat thin « s f rom a different gte, the pugnacity with which Joad to his prejudices and the he showed in finding ■“Gsophic justification for ideas he gaily abandon later on were m • k ll * lose good-natured discusout Joad could not use them in where he was alone with “statements. f ft <^*°¥ y Farm” is not all failure; •too chapters on farming and touch on matters dealt with knowledgably by Massingham, Darling and others, if the ®Wr on “Progress” is strongly reof the wailings of the last n <J£ d Yates book, if the chapter Lesser Breeds” suggests Shaw and adulterated a t least in the heartfelt de--2P Uo .u °f the elderly gourmet faced ® the tin-can cooking of the s teachers’ training college S*wntes as he used to speak—- • l X a ? oram ary. the interest there is * to cooking. Radio talks, television i mSL'- • knows how many books ***£?§■ . . ‘Tasty Meals For Two’ n 5F r Half an Hour.’ ‘Meals .Working Woman’—all under■J/pg to tell you how to turn out tfuble’’ S °° time and witil no know, and have you noticed how ,2? tne issue of each fresh set of Ructions . the level of per"Jjaoce drops?” f p at ’ 1 suppose, is what is meant E in literature what you T t m life.” hjg “contemporary tart” is met i N . ew Zealand, “the fruit Fm? t . frora its tin and the oblong °* p as try from the baker’s . . . • ;“S uced on the eater’s plate and the ‘ under a counterpane of -inevitable custard.” i .Joad appears too in his •bi h of modern writers, especially ; 7 . a PPli es his own brand of ; RnalJ 0 ® 1 ® to the plot of Graham ■ ® nd °f the Affair” and I d of fun in reducing it i »inTt rdl X y ’ The charge that he brings H ESS • G y® ene that “Sarah, the terS? centre of the book . . . >J X« dc i esr L t live” is, of course, one J? roߧh t truthfully against » ™J ToUy . arm ”: then Joad very careful not to call his own »and, in the introduction a plain statement a dlt ? to ma ke his characters ? ut talk like himself. sphnnw write the book then just toof pain in the back- « f°ii° w Orwell in showing of life in a totalitarian tim* • e °ther weary survivors J S=-Tr pa i st m em Phasising how much W3S tt in a defiant lifioi ® J 0 have one more good go at m thrust and shout and laugh and some of the old gusto in it clear that it is folly to be ho wa^£j OUntry in which an author - wsth his copyrights for 11 his house to pay!