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Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 38, 13 August 1932, Page 22

A STORY TO LAUGH AT

Mr. Booth Tarkington gets as much fun as possible out of "Mary's Neck," which is the name of a New England seaside resort, popular alike with cranks and rich people, artists, golfers, and amateur sailors. The tale is told by an elderly Midlander, Mr. Massoy, who has taken a cottage for tho season at Mary's Neck to satisfy the aspirations of his wife and two daughters. The taciturnity and indifference of the natives defeat his sociable iustincts for a considerable time, just as the aloofness of the original colonists discourages Mrs. Massey and Clarissa and Enid; but no family of • Mr. Tarkington's can be resisted for very long Mr. Massey breaks through all defences, and the girls attract to themselves any number of young men representative of the various exclusive and artistic sets.

The girls and their youthful admirers are treated with all the special knowledge, and humour to bo expected from the creator of Penrod and half a dozen delightful studies of the awkward age; nor is Mr. Tarkington less sure in his touch when he shows, us tho blundering, easily flattered, amiablo elderly [father, sometimes the victim, but oftenerin triumphant control of events. There is nothing remarkably new in the setting. Fun has been extracted Ibefore now out of astuto cottagers playing up to the craze for antiques I exhibited by enthusiastic summer visitors; here it is again, and the dis-: comfiture of the Masseys when they are Calmly asked to spend thousands of dollars for a few quaint objects is entirely ludicrous. But perhaps the most entertaining of Mr. Massey's adventures concerns his official duties at the Country Club. Long before the end of the book the reader has developed an affection for this absurd, gently humorous^ citizen of Logansville, whoso mistakes and misadventures never cause himself or others any real humiliation or pain. Shrewd good nature informs this light study of a summer colony, and makes*it a book to be enjoyed in other summer haunts.