NEW FICTION

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29844, 9 June 1962, Page 3

NEW FICTION

The Valley. By Clifford Irv- , int. Heinemann. 278 pp. ■Riis book rrmst be classed as a “Western." yet it will appeal to reader* not ordinarily enraptured by the exploits of gun-happy "goodies” and “toddies” in the wide open space*. The Valley comprised 400 square miles of territory in New Mexico which. by a squatter's right only, was owned by one man. When in IMO a. party of caravanner* from Indiana preposed to settle on "his” land, Gavin Roy made it clear at gnirooirt that he would rent it to them onlv if they did his b’dding in aH thing* Terrorism and a deironic farce of character combined to make his domination effective, his simple philosophy being that anyone who opposed him cou’d expect to be shot out of hand He married the widow of one of his victims when it became obvious th-.t he had made her pregnant, and tiherr son Clayton wrs to prove both his joy and his curse. Rising power and wealth fed Gavin's megalomania, and he did indeed res:.nd himself as the king of the Valley. The boy Clayton should be the crown prince, and to this end his father indulged him. and inducted h-tn in the wr.ys of moral debauchery when he was only 18. Gavin’s wife having died, he married a second time, a young New York beauty, thus sowing the seeds of his downfall. Pampered and bored. Laurel soon became bored, and set out to captivate her stepson. Their liaison had two immediate results—Clayton. miserable and guilt-ridden, fled from his heme for ever, and Gavin was to learn a dreadful secret which turned his pride to ashes and drove him to outrageous excesses of tyranny and oppression Seven years later, with the return of his son on a private mission. the bubble of the older man's authority suddenly burst, and the book ends on a dramatic note of retribution. A thin thread of sympathy for this tortured Colossus, which is kept alive in the reader, is a measure of the autbofs skill in the portrayal of character. A For Andromeda. Fred Hovle and John Elliot. Souvenir Press. 206 pp. Science fiction essentially is a literature for escapists. Like the cowboy film, it is good, old-fashioned entertainment. Sometimes It carries a “moral” although one is not necessary: mo*tly it is stra’ght-forward adventure stuff It must of course, be scientific for so the purists tell ik) if not immediately feasible, but i‘ need not have “hish-falutmg” litera’V pretensions. It is iust the sort of th'ng. In fact, that eminent nhvsicists or biologists are apt to knock out in their spare time. Conseouently. it is snare t’me reading, and anyone with a couole of hours on his hands might do worse than to pick up ‘‘A for Andromeda ”' Based on a 8.8 C television serial, it is a convincing tale about an attempt by an alien intelligence from remote space to conquer the earth and copulate it with a race of human “zombies ” A beautiful young woman is involved. of course, plus a handsome young scientist, a couple of traitors and a vast electronic brain. Readers will know what to expect (an up-to-date Frankenstein) although they might not be prepared for the O Henry ending. At any rate, it is good clean fun. The Loving Maid. By Gloria Jahoda. Chatto and Windus. 260 pp. This light romantic novel is .set in Norfolk in the seventeenth century and relates the love story of a country lass, Annie Warne, and Francis whose grandfather, a successful draper, has bought a country estate and earned a title for himself and his descendants. The book does not pretend to be a historical novel, yet the background is authentic. A glimpse of the Great Fire of London and the pictures of life in rural England at the time of Cromwell and Charles II are thoroughly convincing. This satisfyingly enjoyable first novel also contains many revealing sketches of incidental characters. But the author deftly manages to keep the reader’s attention focused on the main theme, and she whets the appetite tor more from the same pen.

Julia Deverell. By Catherine Hay. Whltcombe and Tombs. IM pp. This is a creditable specimen of the "period” romance, set in New Zealand of the ’Bo’s. Julia Deverell, a beautiful young girl of 18 and her scapegrace brother Edw-in leave their home in Auckland and repair together to Thames, where Edwin hopes to locate a cache of gold said to have been hidden by a Frenchman 20 years before and Julia to escape the unwelcome attentions of her brother-in-law. Ned Haggart. Thrills and dangers aplenty await them. Two men—the fascinating charmer Penryth Orbell and the less volatile Scottish lawyer. Gregor Mackay—lay seige to Julia’s heart, while, for good measure, Ned Haggart arrives on the scene intent upon seducing her. She takes a post as governess to a little girl whose mother, a green-eyed adventuress turns nasty when Orbell continues to pay court to Julia. Two violent deaths take place and a makutu is laid upon Edwin when he finds the Frenchmen's gold in a Maori burial place. The

book ends in good rip-roaring style with the eruption of Tarawera just as Edwin and his sister arrive in the neighbourhood. The author has a fine narrative gift The characters are perhaps over addicted to the use of modern slang and the egregious Haggart makes an improbably villainous villain even by Victorian standards, but there is more body to the tale than is to be found in the Ordinary run of romance fiction. The Foreigner. By Ralph Blum. Hamish Hamilton. 374 pp. This is not a book to be hastily devoured, but rather one to be savoured —to be read with thought, in a leisurely fashion in order to appreciate it. The foreigner of the title is Rinaldo Leone, born in Sicily but now a successful American businessman. who has been caught in Sicily when America entered the war. He has returned to marry his former mistress but with an outlook wholly American. He is determined to go back to America, taking with him his newly-wed wife, and their 19-year-old son Matteo. Rinaldo, who has had a hard struggle before attaining riches and success, is anxious that Matteo should study architecture in America to follow in his footsteps, but the boy wants to be a doctor in his native Sicily and has schemes for improving medical facilities in the villages there. At the same time he is conscious of the love behind his father's impatience with him and he is grateful Rinaldo, on the other hand, has to experience much before he can see any point of view other than his own. In a Sicily thrown into turmoil by the Allied landings and German withdrawals. he gets caught up in a Separatist movement run by some decadent aristocrats, but is disillusioned when they arrange martyrdom for a few of their followers in order to arouse popular sympathy. He decides to return to America at once and to force the unwilling Matteo to fall in with his schemes, but his enforced walk to Messina and the sight of the work being done there in the hospitals brings him more closely into contact with the real Sicily, and when he learns of his son’s good work he gradually begins to sympathise with Matteo’s ambitions. At this moment, when he ceases to try to possess his son, he really gains his affection.

A Place In The Sun. By Stephen McKenna. Hutchinson. 288 pp.

Forty years ago Stephen McKenna was one of the popular novelists of the day; his “Sonia." “Ninety-six Hours' Leave,” and “Lady Lilith,” were mentioned along with Compton MacKenzie’s “Sylvia Scarlett” and “Guy and Pauline.” Mr McKenna has continued writing indefatigably, and “A Place in the Sun” appears to be at least his forty-sixth novel. It is written with a deftness approaching suavity; but it is most improbable. The author wishes to gain the reader's sympathy for his heroine, Camilla Wrenstead, who lives apart from her husband and has just figured in an unpleasant divorce case. She has been the mistress of her employer, a wealthy industrialist, Armstrong Milray. Disgusted by what has happened, she leaves him and takes a post as secretary to Godfrey Mardale, an old gentleman of some means, who has been writing memoirs of his life and times and now hopes to put his papers in order and publish something that will vie with the Greville Diaries. In a matter of hours Camilla and her new employer fall in love. As her husband dies a few day s later, it seems as if this is going to be just another sentimental romance. But Camilla discovers that she is pregnant. It will be Armstrong Milray’s child, and' to him therefore she must return. Her feeling for Mardale seems to her the one worthy emotion of painful life, and she will not spoil it. “A Place in the Sun" is a curious novel; it is a tragedy in which people who at first sight seem superficial are concerned. The Black, The Grey and The Gold. By Norman R. Ford. Souvenir Preaa. 450 pp. The main theme of this American novel is the way in which an investigation into reports of widespread cheating at a United States Military Academy leads to the paying off of old scores by the chief characters in the drama. The author intends the book to be a study of the mental attitudes and motives of the chief characters caught up in the drama of the investigation; and his technique is to take you back 20 years previously when Luther Philipbar. now the Colonel presiding at the Board of I Inquiry. Charlotte, his wife.’ and Major George Landseer’ (another board member) first began at the academy. The' crux of the tale is the fact] that !>n» of the cadet* con-

cemed in the cheating scandal is Colonel Philipbar'* own son. and the revelation that | this young man is the natural ; child not of his supposed father but of Major Landseer. [This situation is plausible i enough, and the author's style tis as direct as his characters ' are fuJJ of vitamin*.