NEW FICTION

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28530, 8 March 1958, Page 3

NEW FICTION

The Wapshot Chronicle. By John Cheever. Gollancz. 301 pp.

The reader does not progress very far into this book before becoming open-mouthed in admiration at the author’s astounding inventiveness. Characters, e'pisodes, phrases—all novel—fill page after page in rich profusion. The basic story tells of an American family which settled in New England in 1630. A chapter or two of brilliantly-written setting and family history brings the story to the present Wapshots. Foremost is the now-elderly

Leander Wapshot, a loveable reprobate, whose epistolatory style allows him to cram more thoughts, ideas and facts than usual into the pages devoted to his letters Leander's style, as he tells us. is formed in the tradition of Lord Timothy Dexter, who put all punctuation marks, prepositions, adverbs*, articles, etc., at the end of communication and urged reader to distribute same as he saw fit. Leander’s sons, Moses and Coventry, move into the wider world, where their careers, loves, and adventures are what would be expected of descendants of Leander. While the boys wander home, and their bridge with it, are stoutly maintained by Leander. Mr cheever is well known as one of America’s very best writers of short stories. His novel emphasises his remarkable gifts, the most striking of which, perhaps, is ability to restrain himself at the point where farce would carry a lesser writer beyond the point of credulity. Amidst every stretch of inventiveness, Mr Cheever’s characters and story remain human and appealing. “The Wapshot Chronicle” is the sort of book admirers keep handy for refreshing “dipping” after a first complete reading. The Dean. By Willa Gibbs. Hodder and Stoughton. 190 pp. This book demonstrates the struggle perpetually raging in local politics between high ideals on the one hand &nd self-interest, reinforced by low cunning, on the other. The scene is North California, where Richard Carr, a member of the local Assembly, has for' years been endeavouring to induce his colleagues to build a dam on the Lincoln river, both for the benefit of farmlands and to avert the danger of flood. Big Business, for its own dubious reasons, is opposed to the project. At a television session on the water problem, the Dean of the Episcopal Church in the capital city is asked to act as moderator, and it is here that Carr sees him for the first time.. Dean Flagg is a man of magnificent stature both physically and spiritually, who, by the active demonstration of a robust faith, has become a personal example to the community of the power inherent in militant Christianity. Much impressed by the man’s personality. Carr attends the first church service (other than attendances at weddings and funerals) of his life. Heje by chance he meets the wife of a brilliant but unscrupulous lawyer, one Plummer, who is trying to oust Carr from his seat in the Assembly in order to replace him. Together Carr and Dorothy Plummer attend the Dean’s Confirmation classes, and Carr makes the hard decision to stand down for the forthcoming election, and help his rival in the campaign for his seat. Plummer backs down on his election promises, and lacking the dam (the building of which had been one of them), the Lincoln river floods, bringing death and ruin in its train, as well as the vengeance of Nemesis to the self-seeking Plummer. Though politics comprise the matter of the book, the figure of the Dean dominates it throughout, and his precepts give foi*m and purpose to the actions of his followers. It never afterwards quite lives up to the brilliance of. its early chapters which deal with the human clashes between two high church dignitaries within the framework of Christian principles, but the author writes with a burning sincerity that illumines the whole work.

The Child of Fortune. By P. B. Abercrombie. Gollancz. 286 I pp - Of the principal characters in this book the one most convincingly drawn is Patricia Donner. (She is 38 years of age, and ner h isband, 55. They have two young children and are well-to-do, owning a country house in Herefordshire and a town house in London, as well as being in a position to keep servants and a gardener, After meeting Neal Gilder, an adopted son of one of her relations, Patricia comes to take a maternal interest in the youth. He is 18 years of agq, dishevelled and given to day dreaming, and hopes to find"a publisher, both for the books he is writing and for the music he is composing, but is quite unsuccessful in having any of his works accepted. The successful development of the story hinges very much upon the relationship between Patricia Donner and this callow youth—a relationship that is reduced to little more than a shadow play in the book, in which Neal never really comes to life. Eventually he is seduced by Patricia, who deserts her husband for a time, until the tragic emptiness of her life and the futility of trying to go along with Neal compel her to retrace her steps and return home. At this point one looks in vain for a convincing portrayal of her husband’s reaction to the situation. For Basil Donner is another character that simply does not come to life in this book, in which so much of the narrative is taken up with introspective soliloquizing on the part of people from whom one expects action rather than day dreaming. Most feaders will enjoy this novel mainly for the sympathetic insight with which the character of Patricia Donner is delineated. The Score at Tea-time. By Michael Ellis. Peter Davies. 288 pp. This is a brilliantly-written, fast-moving, exciting story set in Tokyo at the time of the Korean war. A British officer with Communist sympathies is engaged in fifth-column work. His New Zealander half-brother becomes involved and, through nim, the most engaging character m the book—the New Zealand officer, “Nature Boy” Stubbs. Stubbs’s misdemeanours, in which he engages in artless fashion, lead to a well-portrayed court-martial. The author obviously writes from firsthand knowledge of the place, the time, and Army life. It is a pity that sound characterisation and narrative are marred by a forced end to the story. Mr Ellis plays on his renter’s sensitivities too well lor it to be necessary tor him to seek for too much effect. He has written a very good first novel; he will write better when experience teaches that pulling out all the stops is inclined to deafen. No Evil Angel. By Elisabeth Ogilvie. Harrap. 271 pp. “Love is a familiar; love is al devil; there is no evil angel but) love ” In this novel of violence the evil is corrosive. The good! salt-laden New England air is heavy with hatred, and the small I sounds of the seashore and woods in summer are lost in the shouts I of angry men. It seems a pity that' such competent writing should be i devoted to such brutality. (It was surprising to find Miss Ogilvie misquoting William Blake.) The Penguin volume “Fouri Modern Verse Plays” (269 pp.) is! a handy collection of T. S. Eliot’s! “The Family Reunion,” Christopher Fry’s “A Phoenix Too Fre-j quent,” Charles Williams’ ‘Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury,”' and Donagh McDonagh’s “Happyl as Larry.” The plays are introduced by E. Martin Browne. I