FROM THE NEW FICTION LISTS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 4

FROM THE NEW FICTION LISTS

This Summer’s Dolphin. By Maurice Shadbolt Cassell. 166 pp. This is a novel in which several stories are woven together round a central image, the dolphin, whose existence in some way changes the life of each person involved. The characters are all separate from one another, intent on their various kinds of suffering, and their meetings are by chance. However the dolphin, freely sharing its happiness with chosen human friends, acts as a catalyst and seems to enable the lonely and unhappy to communicate and find companionship. This study in loneliness and the healing power of selfless love is set on an imaginary but all too familiar island, geographically somewhere off the coast of North Auckland. The people Mr Shadholt is concerned with are the outcasts from mainland society: a professor who went mad during a lecture, a young boy who had shot his twin , sister and was tortured by the thought that he might have meant to; slow-witted Zoe, who follows the professor looking for truth, and talks like a crone out of Patrick White; Ben, a writer who is not quite successful enough; Tony, who brought up his son for five years only to have his wife take him away, and who cannot forgive her: Jean, finally content not to find true love. The story of the dolphin is focused through the perception of various of the characters in turn, as well as from the direct observation of the author, and the inconsistencies of tone do not add up in a meaningful way. The more eccentric characters, the professor, for instance, and Zoe, do not achieve the same level of credibility as people as do the rather more familiar Jean and Tony. The novel is best in its evocation of the actual sea, sea-shore, dolphin, and the strenuous pleasure of swimming. The painting on the jacket finely captures the book's central idea. The Tea-Time of Love. By Martin Boyd. Bles. 214 pp. Miss Stilby was the daughter of a canon of Barcbester, and was baptised (for the usual family reasons) with three names. They were Daphne Andromeda Hilda, and the author tells his story using the most appropriate to his heroine’s character which the situation demands. This pleasantly freakish device adds to the charm of an entertaining satire on feminine nature. For in Miss Stilby Daphne represents her intellect, Andromeda the erotic-romantic side of her nature, and Hilda* the wellbred sensible product of the Cathedral Close. Orphaned in middle age, with a barely comfortable income, Miss 1 Stilby prefers the thought of genteel poverty abroad to a bullied existence with an awful aunt in England, and betakes herself to Borne. ■ Here, alas, Andromeda blossoms alarmingly when, in a cafe, run by two English women, which she frequents, she mets the rich and glai morous Mrs Calverley who, 'in the fullness of time, acquaints her with the impas- ■ sioned details of her own 1 highly romantic life’s his- • tory. At times, during this 1 recital, Daphne says in [ effect, “This is imaginative tripe, typifying the worst > kind of novel of the tweni ties.” But Andromeda insists ' upon lapping it up. We are 1 also introduced to a nice ' English girl who often visits 1 the cafe, a penniless sprig of 1 the English nobility (re- ' moved by five lives from a peerage), an unspeakably ■ poisonous and successful ■ playwright, and other divert--1 ing characters, including a i retired brigadier who Androl meda links mysteriously in i her mind with Mrs Calvers ley’s temporarily deserted r husband. The reader easily i guesses the denouement, t which in no way restrains I the amusement that the story evokes.

The White Schooner. By Anthony Trew. Collins. 255 pp.

This is one of those novels which are difficult to put down so madly intriguing is the purport of its various tangled mysteries. The setting is the Spanish island of Ibiza where a good deal of illicit drug-pushing is keeping the police force on the mainland of Spain more than usually busy. The central figure is George Black, an Englishman of doubtful antecedents, who drinks too much and picks up a precarious living as an art critic. The island is much frequented by yachtsmen, so the arrival of a smart white schooner, called the “Snowgoose"—the racially mixed crew of which claim to be writing a guide for visiting pleasurecraft arouses no particular interest. Among the interesting inhabitants of the island is the tragic figure of a South American millionaire of Dutch extraction. Mr van Biljon is a recluse whose only real interest in life is hig artcollection. IJis face, hideously scarred by a bad aircrash in his youth, and the dark glasses which he always has to wear! give him 'a good excuse for refusing to entertain visitors in his palatial house, Altomonto, or ever admit anyone to view his priceless pictures. Black tries openly, and by every means to break down this prohibition, in order, he says, that he may earn a really good fee from a newspaper for an article on the subject, but without success. The police believe Black to be tangled with the narcotics gang, especially with a lovely Puerto-Rican girl, Manuela, a suspected addict. The reader at this point is as puzzled by Black’s manoeuvres as the many interested parties who are watching them, and an unexpected invitation from van Biljon to bring Manuela to dine with him on a particular date, and view the gallery afterwards make the general mystery more baffling than ever. The denouement takes place at sea, and supplies the solution. The.book must rank as a good example of suspense fiction from a gifted writer.

The Burning-glass. By S. M. Behrman. Hamish Hamilton. 408 pp.

So many plays and novels written about the growing shadow, of Nazi Germany i over the European Jews in t the late 1930 s have become ; classics that one feels any 1 novel repeating this subjecti again, would have to be out- < standing to justify itself. This i note! begins' in pre-war Aus- i tria; the first section is set ' during a Salzburg Festival ' conducted under the threat of : Hitler’s advance. In general i the authorconcentrates his ; attention on the numerous i characters with which he 1 crowds his pages. the artistic,' the famous, the rich, the 1 deviates. He describes quite i vividly the .glittering panorama of parties and performances but his attempts to: convey the impending horror 1 by brief references atthd .Ondl of iXlmost every ' chapter, Oil; badly. One feels, that perhaps I Mr : Behmah has not given < sufficient thoughtS to What sort of novel he was trying to write. Some scenes are brilliant examples of pure comedy of manners. In them the novelist’s previous experience as a playwright is evident: in his keen eye for observation and keen ear. for dialogue. But the impact of these few scenes is dissipated by attempts to provide a'psychological study of too, many characters, social criticism, a panoramic view of society and and a sense of tragedy. Moris-: Over, the.length of the novel could easily have been reduced and:) its impact Increased by the cutting of much repetitious: detail and much obvious, explanation. Stanley Grant, a young playwright With- onf Successful comedy to his credit, is the main character a'nd provides a‘ tenuous Milk which strives tohold the hook together. His struggles to find himself and to come to terms l with his Jewish ancestry never really grip the attention as numerous sub-plots constantly pull one away. This is a novel a

which has many good elements; but the author has not drawn them together into a cohesive and effective whole. Where A Man Belongs. By David Martin. Cassell. 232 pp.

This new novel by one of Australia’s most highlypraised writers deals with the interweaving of two lives. The narrator of the story is Max, a writer now living in Australia but born a German Jew and constantly aware of his heritage and his history. In a basement office from which he runs a creative writing course, Max meets Paul Burtle, an elderly, lonely, insecure book-keeper. At first it is largely from curiosity that Max helps Paul with bis correspondence with a German woman whom he hopes to marry. Gradually, however, the pathetic figure of Paul makes more demands on his time and emotions, demands which Max feels unable to refuse. Eventually the ill-assorted couple set off <m a jourpey to London. apd Germany, revisiting Max’s past and investigating Paul’s future. The, first of these themes is somewhat clumsily handled; against a background of the horror of the Jewish tragedy are set a number of flashbacks to Max’s childhood, and the scenes which show his relationships with his father and his two stepmothers have a touch of melodrama. As the nqvel is mainly written in a moderate key these scenes introduce an unnecessary and jarring note. The story of Paul’s blighted hopes and the impact of the past on his life and his relationship with Max are dealt with much more adequately. Moreover the inexplicable; clumsy, yet strong, bond between the two men is movingly suggested. The irritated affection and responsibility Max feels for the pathetic Paul and his own sense of inadequacy is conveyed extraordinarily well. This relationship is the main strength of the novel and together with the authentic, if unexciting, characterisation lifts the book from the ranks of the mediocre. Flashman. By George MacDonald Fraser. Herbert Jenkins. 256 pp. This is a fine, racy adventure novel masqUpradipg as memoirs. The feeling > of authentic confessions- lends bite to the-narrative. George MacDonald Fraser his taken considerable pains’ to make the tale feasible; ' “Flashman,” which purports to be “edited and arranged -from The Flashman Papers 18391842" found in; a descendant’s gari-et, evenhas an apparatus ofmotes and -a glossary at the end.-Flashman himself is the "cad” from “Tom Brown’S Schooldays,” who was expelled from the school for drunkenness (after a career of bullying). His’life for the -next few years is the subject 1 of the story. While Tom Brown continued a ttfebwi virtue, Flashman revelled in pleasant vice, beginning by seducing his father's mistress. Similar encounters are frequent in the story. Ah Utter coward, he joins the 11th Light Dragoons, because he knows they have just returned from, battle and are likely to be out pf danger for a while. Ironically enough however circumstances conspire-to- get him a name for bravery. Forced to "rbHgh" from his regiment for marrying beneath him (it west of course, a forced marriage) he has to retrieve his fortunes by joining a regimentin, India. .Here the action really begins. Flashman’s reputation has Preceded him, and he is sent as a spy into the most dangdr-, ous area conceivabler— Afghanistan. Here one begins to admit a slight « ration for the way- he iges to turn others’ misfortunes to his own glory:, He remains callous to all human life except his own. ’ This’ story is historically round, and the disastrous Retreat from Kabul provides a fitting climax to this Part I of the “Flashman Papers.**

A Man Apart By Jan Rabie. Collins. 287 pp.

In this long, turbulent novel, the colour problem in the South Africa of 170 years ago is poignantly presented. The Tower of Babel can have had no more disrupting elements than those which bedevilled the relations of Boer voor-trekkers, the new English irruption of conquering forces, the indigenous Hottentots, Kaffirs and Bushmen—all bitterly at enmity—and the attitude of the “Bastards," or half-castes, towards those of their colour whose pigments differed in degree. And in addition to these racial discords the Dutch determinedly tried to force the Christian religion on the collective “heathen.” The only real heroine in a world of carnage, rape, bad faith and cupidity was the old woman known to all as Ouma Katryn—herself a half-caste—-with her simple faith in God, and her concern for the fate of her clan, which was heavily divided against itself. Douw Prinns, the "man apart,” was a dark Hottentot with a fierce personal pride which transcended racial loyalties. . His first cousin, Thomas Muller (neither were aware of the relationship), had been blessed with a light pigment, which made him proudly pass as a white man. He and Douw, so much alike in the eyes of Ouma Katryn, their grandmother, were bitter enemies, for Muller regarded Douw as one of the treacherous blacks intent upon destroying the white domination. The British are not credited with having any concern for the often beleaguered Dutch farmers, who were frequently driven to defending themselves from marauding black bands behind stout blockades, and the book ends on an unhappy note of violence and tragedy.