Literary, Views & Reviews NEW FICTION

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30302, 30 November 1963, Page 3

Literary, Views & Reviews NEW FICTION

The Scent of Water. By Elizabeth Goudge. Hodder and Stoughton. 285 pp. For those nervously tautened by the glitter and •hallow satisfactions of modern life, and irritated by the selfish intrigues of living and the attitude of “devil take the hindmost." this is an escape book But not for those who cannot exist without sophistication. M.ss Goudge has done again what she did in earlier novels —taken the reader into an idyllic English village peopled by delightful characters. Kindliness predominates. Some of them do not meet the measure of moral standards, but what would be evil in another setting is not evil here, for Miss Goudge, in that enchanting way of hers, has drawn the teeth. Thus we find Mary Lindsay. 50. cityfied career woman, leaving her assured Government job in London, drawn doubtingly to accept the bequest of a cottage in the village of Appleshaw. b. passes through an avenue of limes golden in the summer sun and then comes to the quaint old world village and the memories of an aged aunt who had remembered her in her will. Gone were uncertainties. Much of what is written in this charming story is poetryin prose. The colours in the pictures of flowers and trees, old world cottages and manor houses, and the songs of birds painted with a pen are as vivid as if they were real. For Miss Goudge has a remarkable gift for imagery. More than that, with a touch of the pen she can bring the past into the present and make the present grow out of the past. We become entangled, but not aggravatingly, in the troubles of the no-good son of the gentle, elderly Colonel Adams and his wife. We see this son philandeering with Valerie, the silly, discontented wife of blind Paul. The commercially successful and ambitious Hepplewhites. who have become lords of the manor, crash because of the self-made tycoon's dishonest gamble. There is Jean, the frightened, abnormally nervous sister of the vicar. And, above all, there is Edith, the unhappy, highly sensitive adopted child of the Talbots, who finds peace, understanding and fulfillment in the cottage that was a legacy. This is a gentle tale named with an excerpt from the Book of Job. It is full of imagery, has a fairy tale quality and that rare and forgotten thing —a happy ending. No Boots For Mr Moehau. By E. H. Audley. Hodder and Stoughton. 190 pp. With an obvious understanding and sympathy for the Maori, the author has presented many new aspects of the old problem facing any native community—the effect of encroaching civilisation. In Mr Moehau who potters contentedly along his stretch of coast, visiting his nets and chatting with neighbours, we eee the old time Maori, content with his peaceful life and ever-hopeful of preserving the old customs and tribal lands. At the other end of the scale is Tuki Ahu. Young and keen with an eye to a fast pound, he is pushing for the sale of the tribal lands to make way for holiday camps and new subdivisions. Between these two extremes of emotion are people like Tai Roko with his c. Mrs Amelia Hartley-Bish with her bees, and other delightful characters in the Matarangi community who help to fill out the background to this contemporary Maori problem.

Fire on the Mountain. By | Edward Abbey. Eyre and Spottiswoode 211 pp. When Billy Vogelin Starr arrived at his grandfather’s ranch in New Mexico to spend his holidays as usual he immediately felt a change in the atmosphere. It was not just the fences, broken by the jeeps of careless soldiers which had let the cows escape, nor the screaming of jets overhead, nor even the carcase of the horse which had been deliberately shot that caused the unease. There was more to come. Gradually Lilly realised that the ranch was required by the government as a missile range and that alone of the ranchers his grandfather John Vogelin was going to resist all attempts to put him off his property. In the sweltering days that followed life went on as usual, but the boy was increasingly conscious of the disturbing beauty of the harsh drought-ridden land. As pressure was brought to bear on the old man, first by bribery and then by force, the boy watching his grandfather stand fast by his ranch which was his life, became aware of the rights and desires of the individual, and his own passionate love for his grandfather increased. At last, in i spite of all their efforts Vogelin was forcibly removed and Billy felt that Lee, their ; friend had betrayed them. But when the old man dis--1 appeared it was Lee who ' took Billy to find him again in the splendid remote beauty of what had been his own property and they who lit i the cleansing “Fire on the ■ Mountain” which mingled I the old man's ashes with the ’ earth he had loved so long. This book is a possionate . defence of the right of any . individual to live his life in , his own way regardless of j social or political pressures, i Told as it is through the lips of a boy who loved him, the story has a magnificent hero . and yet the other characters. . even the smallest, remain , alive whether they be loyal , to. embarrassed by. or just , fed up with the old man and ' his obstinacy. The author’s , love for this harsh country- • side is aflame in every word. This makes most satisfying • reading. ) The Devil with Love. By Robert Nathan. Allen. 143 pp. . The legend of Faust’s pact ( with Mephistophiles for the f love of the young and beautiful Marguerite in exchange i for his soul is brought up to , date in this amusing little ■ book. In the small American town of Parish we find, in the . person of Faust. Alfred • Sneeden, a middle-aged TV repair-man. The part of . Marguerite is played by a • seventeen-year-old beauty ; queen. Gladys Milhouser, and ; Mephistophiles appears in • Parish as Dr. Samuel Hod I (Samael of Hod), a heart . specialist. Thrown in for good ; measure we have Mary i Sebastian, the town's postl mistress and Father Deener, a • Roman Catholic priest, whose . belief in a personal devil as > well as his suspicions of Dr . Hod are justifiably reinforced I by the latter's strange pre- • scriptions and even stranger . diplomas. U fortunately the ! ancient formulae of exorcism . are not potent against this 1 modernised devil. but . Samael, himself, is not . modern enough to deal with > that strange new race of ‘ human, the American teen- : ager There is in particular i a language difficulty and . Samael of Hod is unable to "get with it.” All ends ■ happily in this rather charm- : ing, if unoriginal, tale that ■ can be recommended for light reading.

| Tarakian. By Ludovic Peters. I Abelard Schuman. 192 PPIt was almost by accident i that Philip Checker came to ' the rescue of Palkeweic a i distinguished elder states- . man, when he was beset by a gang of thugs intent on mur- ' der. Palkewiec is working to ; overthrow the government of his country and has a con- ’ siderable following in nearly ! every city in Europe. But ; Palkewiec is not the prime ' mover, as Checker, now a member of the gang, finds 1 out. With the help of a de- [ tective friend, Firth, he dis- . covers that Tarakian—Colonel j Boris. Tarakian—an im- ’ mensely powerful, evil man , of obscure background, is the . guiding spirit behind the I machinations of the organisaj tion in which he has become . involved. This is an exciting . story in the thriller tradition : with, of course, a girl from • the “other side,” plenty of . evil enemies, a child king : with a weakling guardian, ■ and tense situations in plenty, i If the plot is slightly incre- : dible, the characters are real ' enough. 1 All Men Are Mariners. By Calvin Kentfield. W. H. Allen. 256 pp. I The subject of this novel ' is lust as exhibited in one . man’s undisciplined urge to • fornicate with every woman > who takes his fancy. It seems i wise to warn would-be ’ readers who may be sensitive ) on such matters that the t genital organs and the ) physical acts concerning 1 them are described, mag- ) nified, and glorified with a graphic intimacy. In other ) words, these parts of the ' story could be questioned as 1 salacious and obscene. The 1 recurring emphasis on such ■ descriptions is a pity, be--5 cause the writer is obviously - skilled enough to have ob- ) tained his effects without . being so candid. One of Mr > Kentfield's texts is a I Phoenician saying that ‘‘ail t men are mariners and all 1 women islands to be in--5 habited.” It is a succinct • summing up of the attitude • of the central character Tom, I an American, who tells the story in an ingenious mixing of first and third person. The r rutting Lothario finds • Nemesis upon him, for what seems impossible happens—t he falls in love and so does ; the woman, but practical . reasons give her second > thoughts, and the flight they , planned together is left for . him to make alone. Thus t after a sordid sequence of , artifices. deceits and i drunkenness the story pro- ■ duces a moral out of amoral f immorality. ' Dead Men Rise Up Never. By I Christopher Landon. Heinemann. 159 pp. I In this novel of suspense by the author of “Ice Cold In I Alex,” the hero, Harry • Andrews, is given the task of • solving a murder plainly set i out for him in the murdered > man’s last novel. It is a story ; telling of the hero’s friendship through school days and i of later brief encounters with ■ the charming, yet rather un- • stable Colin Headly who be- > comes an author of note, i Living first in a castle in ; Ireland, then later moving to : Spain with his wife and ; secretary, Headly delights in i wild parties and appears to ' drink himself to death. Then ■ the hero receives the manu- • script of Headly's last novel I and the awful truth comes i out. With a build up of tense ; courtroom scenes interspersed ■ with flashbacks giving mean- ; ing to later motives, the book finishes with a dramatic and wholy unexpected twist.