NEW FICTION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28920, 13 June 1959, Page 3

NEW FICTION

Skylight. By Robert Yates Kittredge. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 243 pp.

“Skylight” is a novel which brings together strange aspects of modem New York. Max Freed, a sculptor, is accidentally involved in the life of Doris Chaadi, a girl of many misfortunes of great sincerity of nature. Unfortunately Doris is preyed upon by a gallery of underworld characters, described by the author with really appalling skill. Soon after meeting her, Max has to defend her from one of these ruffians, Ritti by name. In the scuffle that follows, Ritti is accidentally killed, and Max with Doris has to fly for his life. It soon becomes clear that the pursuit is going to be close, and in these desperate straits a deep understanding grows up between the two fugitives. These breathless interludes are very real, for here Mr Kittredge’s prose is seen at its most vivid and sensitive. The situation speedily deteriorates: the flight and the pursuit take on a nightmare quality that is cleverly sustained until the climax, “when gripping a chisel in each cold hand, Max braced his feet in the snow to meet their assault.” “Skylight” is not an ordinary thriller. In fact there is something fated about this strange turn of fortune’s wheel; Mr Kittredge has transmuted a sordid tale into a theme for tragedy.

Victoria. By Evelyn Anthony. Museum Press. 284 pp.

Novels published by the Museum Press generally have a touch of distinction, and Evelyn Anthony’s “Victoria” is no exception to the rule. Victoria is, of course, Queen Victoria, and this book tells the story of her life from her accession to the throne in 1837 until the death of her husband, the Prince Consort, 24 years later. Of course an outline of the Queen’s life is familiar to nearly everyone; but the author of “Victoria” has sought to enter imaginatively into the very mind and heart of the young Queen. She has had predecessors in this, one of them a writer of great talent. Nevertheless, readers of this novel will agree that Evelyn Anthony has her own approach, and that her knowledge of exalted circles is considerable. Although she is sometimes frank, her attitude is strictly fair and never derisive. First and foremost it is a story that she has to tell, a much stranger story than at first seems possible. In the early days of her marriage it was hard for Victoria ever to forget she was a Queen. Albert’s unhappiness was greater: he had married for reasons of State and found his wife more unsympathetic than he had thought possible. This is the situation Evelyn Anthony finds and develops brilliantly in the pages of her book. The Seal. By W. H. Canaway. Joseph. 174 p.p.

Those who like unusual novels should make sure of reading “The Seal.” This book is full of queer characters, both human and animal, pictured in their Welsh setting, which seems most appropriate. Tegla, an intrepid fisherman, is filled with an almost mystical desire to come to grips with a grey seal that constantly interferes with his catches and his deep-sea nets. While he is preoccupied in this way, a young married man, Edward Drey, as sly as his name* it plotting to add Bronwen, Tegla’s daughter, to his list ; of conquests. He feels he can easily outwit Tegla and the . girl’s awkward suitor. Caradoc. As it. happens both plans are attended by partial success; but Mr Canaway has contrived a thrilling series of climaxes, which are also quite unexpected. In fact “The Seal” is nothing if not original

Man of Montmartre. By Stephen and Ethel Longstreet. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 288 PP. This 'novel of the life of Maurice Utrillo, the painter, can hardly be called agreeable reading. Utrillo’s pictures were the flower of a life of poverty and degration, and this contradiction seems to be insoluble. At. least it would be hard to maintain that the authors of “Man of Montmartre” make it particularly credible. Of course there is ample local colour throughout. The story opens in Paris, in the eighties, with the usual crowd at the “Chat Noir.” Anatole France is there and the divine Sarah; and Guy de Maupassant is describing in detail “the primitive life of Normandy peasants.” But Utrillo could never, when he grew up, belong to any of the more placid artistic circles. By the time he reached his teens he was a hardened drinker; so far had he gone in alcoholic disintegration that he had his first spell in a lunatic asylum at the age of 18. He seemed to paint in spasms, quite by accident, in between bouts of dissipation. In conclusion it may be added that not many novels resemble this one, which at times reads like the unfolding of a nightmare. One tribute, however, must be paid to the authors: they are certainly to be congratulated upon their powers of organisation and their grasp of detail.

The Last Frontier. By Alistair Mac Lean. Collins. 319 pp.

In his latest book, Alistair MacLean, the distinguished author of “H.M.S. Ulysses” and “South by Java Head,” has deserted the sea. His new novel takes place in Southern Europe and exhibits in a different way all this writer’s wonted skill in constructing an exciting but logical sequence of events. One of Britain’s leading scientists, Professor Harold Jennings, has gone over to the U.S.S.R. He had no choice, for his wife and son had already been kidnapped in Switzerland and taken behind the iron curtain. The professor had no option but to follow them. Unfortunately he could not be replaced; “he has a brain like an electronic computer and is the world’s greatest expert and authority on the higher mathematics of ballistics and ballistic missiles.” It was Michael Reynolds’s mission to get him back. At first sight the difficulties of the task seemed insuperable. Reynolds met with trouble as soon as he entered Hungarian territory, for he was immediately arrested. At police headquarters in Budapest he meets with the heroine of the book, Julia Jansci. Not that there is much time for romance in “The Last Frontier.” Mr Mac Lean is clearly more interested in action and thrills.

Walk Through the Valley. By Edward McCourt. Barker. 222 pp.

Mr McCourt’s latest novel of Canadian life is quietly and sensitively written. It tells of an Irish family, who have settled in Western Canada during the second decade of this century. The father, Dermot Troy, is brilliant and restless, not really fitted to be a tiller of the soil. To his son and daughter, both in their teens, he represents everything that is gay and romantic. But a time of happiness really comes to an end when another Irishman, Blaze Corrigal, comes into the life of the Troy family. The pattern of their existence is wholly changed. Both father and daughter are influenced by Blaze, and in fact Sheila falls hopelessly in love with him. The tragedy of the book comes about when Blaze, who is really a bootlegger, involves Dermot Troy in this traffic. Blaze disappears, and Dermot is finally killed in a

scuffle with the police. However, Mr .McCourt is not satisfied to leave it at that: he brings his story to a chastened but nevertheless hopeful conclusion.