SATIRE AND ROMANCE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 249, 17 July 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

SATIRE AND ROMANCE

Chemical Engineer as Hero of a Fine Novel “Sugar in the Air,” by E. C. Large (London: Cape). Mr. Large has hit upon a novel theme for his story and has exploited it with success. “Sugar in the Air” describes the efforts to produce and market a new food, a synthetic sugar obtained directly from solar energy and the use of waste gases and waste heat. That is the barest possible outline of the plot and does little justice to it. Actually the book covers a surprisingly wide field and contains a wealth of detail, all relevant to the story, which says much for the inventive powers of the author. ®

Besides being an exciting narrative bringing romance to chemical engineering and research and into marketing activities, it has significance as a satire. Mr. Large draws a telling picture of an incompetent board of directors frittering away shareholders’ money in an effort to preserve the dignity of big business and ignoring entirely the enormous social importance, implicit in the process they, control, of the wholesale manufacture of food by synthetic means. In contrast to the unimaginative board members he depicts the idealism of a chemical engineer brought in to develop the process, a remarkable young man full of enthusiasm for his work, yet frustrated by incompetence and indifference on every side until finally his dreams of infinite possibilities come to nothing and he finds himself back where he started—in the ranks of the unemployed. Mr. Large is an excellent story-teller. He keeps the action moving at a fast pace and finds no difficulty in maintaining suspense. In addition he has a gift for character drawing which lends force to his narrative and provides added impetus to its drive.