PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 88, 14 April 1934, Page 18

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

• The Chief Librarian of the Wellington Public Libraries has chosen "Wild Deer," by R. H. Baptist, and "The Crooked World," by ii. D. H. Cole, as tho books of the week, and has furnished the following reviews:—

The touchstones of artistry and beauty can seldom bo applied iv theso times to the novel. The popular demand for quantity weighs heavily with the average publisher, and a fashion of extra-full-length family novels" has become the order of the day. These are seldom more than mediocre, and, indeed, it would be difficult to imagine how any author could support his inspiration to the extent of seven or eight hundred pages.. Although theso sagas are conscientious and usually well-written, they have nothing, except in llashes, of' artistry or beauty about them. On the reader, then, weary'of following tho third and fourth generations to their tedious destinies, "Wild Deer," by Hernokin Baptist, will burst with special significance, for, although a novel with a purpose, it is marked throughout by a dignity and a purity of style far remote from propaganda. No novel, in plot of material, could deal with a more momentous issue—the growth of. a, new culture among the black races in South Africa; a culture coming from within, following upon tho readjustment of native civilisation with that of the white peoples. Logically, political in subject, the treatment of the racial problem is raised by the author in his characterisation of Eobert de la Harpe to sublime heights of sacrifice and beauty.

In brief, the story deals with tho decision of de la' Harpo, an American negro singer of international fame and importance, to visit the ancient home of his race. He goes with the vaguelyfelt longing to do something -to help his people to survive tho onslaughts of an alien civilisation, to teach them to raise up a new order for themselves, founded on a firm basis of fusion and readjustment. Ho finds, however, that in South Africa, his reputation as one of the world's, greatest artists, and his wealth, stand for less than nothing. Ho is a negro, and therefore unprivileged: he may not ride in white people's taxis, nor can he stay at fashionable hotels. His sensitiveness is stung by the realisation that in his own • country ho is an outcast. In his mission, however, he finds a'few people,: sympathetic and willing to help; chief of these is Colenbrander, a Dutch lawyer, who takes' him away from the towns to a tribe far up-country where he remains for a time advisor and counsellor. Hero de la Harpe is called upon to settle the question of his future —will he return to his successes in Europe or will he remain in Africa to fight what must in his lifetime at any rate be a losing battle? Urged by Cqlenbrander, the decision is made, and henceforth his only trips abroad must bo ■to raise money by concerts to carry out his

■work. - A more tragic figure than de la Harpe does not exist in modern fiction. He is the ideal of the race—the symbol of negro progress, a progress which will have to be bought with generations of suffering 'and despair. In its style and subtlety, "Wild Deer" is an exquisite piece of writing. More than this, it incorporates within the scope of a novel the psychological torment and suspense of an' individual called upon to take his share irt the solution of a world ■ problem. "THE CROOKED WORLD." A book of verse from the pen of Mr. Cole, the famous Professor -of Economics and writer of mystery novels, can be looked upon only as •an event. Mr. Cole has a gift for phrase, pungent and biting; the technique of his verse, which relies upon the length of the line rather than the cadences within it, is interesting; and there is all too muck bitter truth in his view of economici conditions. The form' throughout is> subordinate to the thought; and this is much, for in recent years we have had too many verses about nothing. But with all its virtues Mr. Cole's book is disappointing. With all his pity and sympathy he has no rcf> s belief in thte inherent good of human nature. Witili all his study of economics he can produce nothing more constructive than bitter recrmination. A,nd with all lms learning he has not philosophy enough to carry him beyond the cynical poetwar disillusion of our modern defelitists. ■•'■.. . ■ • 1 It is a pity, for Mr. Cole is an aerate observer, arid his pictures of povertystricken bewilderment at illogical eicoriomics are not lacking, in power. The verses are interesting and characteristic, but pno can only regret that Mr. Cole is still at odds with the world. NEW CIBRARY ADDITIONS. Selected titles from bo,oks, reeeintly added to the libraries arc as follows:— General: "Film," by B. Arnheim; |"Big Cage," by C. Beatty and E. Antlkmy; "Incomparable India," by E. J.- Blackham; "Kings in Exile," by O. Ernst; "Sophie in London, 1786," by S. vion la Eoche; "Myself and My Friends?' by L. McCarthy; "Life's Enchanted Cup," by Mrs. C. S. Peel; "Blood oi. the Deck," by J. McLaren. Fiction: "jDeath of a Ghost," by M. Allingham; "Honeymoon "House," by G. M. Attenborjough; "The Missing Treaty," by, W. C. L. Dawe; "The Fiddling Cracksman,",, by 11.. S. Keeler; "The Gowk Storm," by N. B. Morrison; "Superstitious Corner," by S. Kaye Smith; "The Vippr. of Luxor," by G. Seton. : W