CURRENT FICTION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 21

CURRENT FICTION

SOME LATEST EXAMPLES "Love in Burma," by Bay C'arr (London: Geoffrey Bles), ia a colourful and interesting story of intrigue among Anglo-Indian and English people as developed in "Love in Burma." Bobbie Heave, a young English lawyer, falls | deeply in Jove with Viola Daylc, an English girl, who loaves Mudon, in Burma, and goes travelling in England and on the Continent with her father, leaving Neavo in a state of uncertainty as to her feelings for him. This leads, with tho help of. gossipping mischiefmakers of both sexes, to despair on the part of the young lawyer. Then he gets entangled 'in . the affairs of an Anglo-Indian manager oft a rice producing business, and is badly'discredited. He takes to himself a Burmese girl, and finally in a fit of remorse, when he finds she is an expectant mother, marries her. Theii Viola Dayle and her , father return to Mudon, and Neavo makes the tragic discovery that Viola has always loved him. . It is the -climax to his suffering, but fortunately, he is not required'to* bear much more. The "local colour" of the book.is particularly interesting, as also are the character studies of the: Anglo-Indian men and women, while Neaye and Viola are charming people. The. book has many good qualities and can be recommended. Folly and love. "Will o' the.Wisp," by Patricia worth (London: Hoddor- and Stoughton), is a novel that will completely satisfy lovers of the romantic. The "Wcntworth" novels all have a strong sentimental flavour and happy endings. This is not a tale of stirring adventure, nor big dramatic moments, but is human and warming, It is a tale of love that is clean and sweet. The heroine, Flora March, is a mad-cap tamed by her love fnr David, whp is like to.fall into ths hands of an old sweetheart, _ now aravishing widow. His first meeting with her need not have caused. him the trepidation it did. had he kn.own-that Polly, alias Flora Marsh, would be there to distract his attention with her buoyant youth. It is a foregone conclusion that this young and adorable scatterbrain will oust tlie widow from David's affections, and she does. David realises that he, too, loves, and the ending is, a happy "fade-out." Folly's scrapes and troubles are amusing, BOHEMIA AS IT SEEMS. "The Koppor Kettle," by Irene Stiles (London: Cassell and Co., Ltd.), Is a tale of youth; "quite definitely" (to quo to a phrase much used throughout the book) a' tale of "modern" youth. To tho set of young men and women in. this story, parents (except as pro-natal influences) mean very little; and homes are places to keep out of. So most of tho action takes place at "Tho Kopper Kettle," a tearoom run by Pauline March's attractive' but inconsequent and war-spoilt brother, Con, assisted by herself and 'Blaizo Harvey. Pauline had been to the Zedd School of Art, but- although possessed of a' wonderful sense of colour, she had little flair for drawing, and found the few odd poems sho so easily wrote more lucrative and less laborious work. So sho threw in her lot with her brother Con with zest and without a great sense of renunciation. Sho still worked at the "Kopper Kettle" in the evenings, as did Blaizo, who had also been to the Zedd School, and who continued working after hours so that ho might pass his architect's examinations. Pauline and Blaize very naturally fall in love," and their passions ebb- and Jlow through quiet chapters, each a monument to the theory of propinquity in love. A'now personage comes to the "Kettle" in "Beauty" Beaufort, a lovely chorus girl. She and Con become engaged, but he treats her so lightly tliat sho breaks with him, and later ends her lifo with suicide at "Tho Kopper Kettle," when it becomes dramatically .known to her associates that a member of their little coterie was her father. The writer has certainly made all her characters alive and likely, and sho has a great gift for descriptive writing which rarely fails to produce tho right atmosphere for them. * Miss Stiles has written quito a clever book, and with her ability she could write a cleverer and moro refreshing one.