THE BOOKSHELF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20520, 22 March 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF.

"THE WRITERS' WAR."

NOTABLE GERMAN BOOK. The battle of the War Books still wages fast and furious. Books that might have caused a sensation a year ago are in danger of being overlooked or at best skipped, and only those of outstanding merit have a hopo of survival. Outstanding among recent books is a slim little translation from the German of Paul Alverdes called "Tho Whistler's Boom." The scene is a hospital on tho banks of the Rhino during the war. Its most familiar background is one room in which are three men who in consequenco of wounds in tho throat, have had tubes inserted. From a peculiarity in breathing they are known as whistlers. The pleasures, hopes, and fears of these men arc dealt with in a most natural and moving way. A fourth voiceless man ar- . rives in the ward. With what intimacy ho is received and welcomed, even to tho length of examining and becoming familiar with their tubes. He goes to the operating room and returns, not with a tube inserted, but with his voico t returned. With what shame and unspoken apology ho leaves tjliem. His name is never mentioned again. Another new anival comes, this time a genuino whistler, but to tho distaste of all, an English prisoner of war. His actual arrival and the slow acceptanco of him by the three Germans, is ono of tho most artistic and satisfying things in a book whoso distinction lies in its underlying humanity. A hospital of mutilated and war-shat-tered men is surely tho grimmest aspect of the war. Paul Alverdes unfolds* his story with the simplicity of great art, and the unaffected poignancy of that which he tells will do more toward an enduring peace than all tho detailed horrors and atVocities hitherto published. Hero is dignity and beauty. Tears may be never far from tho eyes, but they are witheld to smile at the delicate humour which underlies every incident. " Tlic Whistler's Room" is naturally shadowed by the waste and ugliness of war, but it' is of gossamer-like delicacy, of childlike simplicity and sweetness, because of which it is "ono of the outstanding books of tho war. English readers will bo very grateful to ill". Crcighton for his excellent translation. " The Whistler's Room," by Pnul Alverdes. translated by Basil Crcighton (Seeker). MR. TOMLINSON'S MIXED BAG. TWO BOOKS IN ONE. Since Mr. 11. M. Tomlinson consolidated his already great reputation with such a notable novel as "Gallion's Reach" any work by him is assured of universal attention. His new novel, " All Our Yesterdays," in which tho second part deals with tho war,, and the first part with all sorts of things, is nevertheless a little disappointing. One's first quarrel with it is that it is a novel, for Mr. Tomlinson does not move easily among fictitious characters. Ho is a brilliant essayist and an observant traveller, but his characters become subservient to their surroundings, and first strain, and then break, the reader's interest in them. Tho incidents, covering a huge field between tho Boer War in South Africa and the War called Great, arc strung together by a rather nebulous thread, and written in the first person, which is sometimes Mr. Tomlinson and sometimes Anon, so that while one is lost in wonder at the beauty of their portrayal, one sometimes doubts what they are doing tliero at all. Why, for instance, in a book which is to become preoccupied with tho war, is a lengthy excursion made up an African river, even if the description bo very brilliantly written. In a. lesser man it might be thought that the object is to compel attention by sheer length, for Sir. Tomlinson's book is very long. There is enough in it for two ordinary books, and each half might have been better than the whole would have been had one been a book of travel and 'the other a book of essays and impressions. That is the maddening thing, that one is compelled to admiraeven as one is disenchanted by its incoherences. Mr. Tomlinson sees war as a calamity, a negation of life; and as such his is a book against war. His characters show the virtues of courage and steadfastness, even cheerfulness in adversity, but it is a cheerfulness born of ironic despair, a courage which has stifled hope. All Our Yesterdays" establishes Mr. Tomlinson's literary reputation more, firmly than ever, but"dethrones him as a great novelist. " All Our Yesterdays," by H. M. Tomlinson (Heincmann). HEROIC WASTE. A PADRE IN • WARFARE. War books conquer by their sheer excellence and vitality. "Retreat," by C. R. Benstcad, is the story of the Allied retreat before the great German offensive in 1918, seen through the eyes and sufferings of an English padre. Of all ranks there was none whose task was more unenviable, or more difficult to fill with credit and respect, than that of the padre. This one, accustomed to the sheltered life of a country vicarage, is sent out to deal with raw men for the first time in his life, at the very worst possible time, on the day the German offensive began, when every man on the staff was occupied night and day with his job.

This sensitive little parson, bewildered, ignored, in the way, finds himself in a foreign, pagan world, which neither needs nor wants hm. He is always sent on with the baggage, given menial jobs to keep him occupied, unintentionally slighted and bruised by busy officers, who fit like cogs into a well-ordered machine. Their very efficiency and kindness preys on the nerves of the despairing little man, who spends days and nights of torment. To complete his agony, there come adoring, hero-wor-shipping letters from his parishioners, praising the noble work he is doing. ilie artistry of the book is that while the padre is not allowed one heroic or admirable quality, and is a complete failure in his every action, he yet wins the readers entire sympathy. Wrong-headed, soft narrow-visioned, lie may be, but at heart he is a fighter and a sticker. The officers are neither vilified nor whitewashed, but there is a complete absence of the muck-rake. Each character stands out clear and dist.net. The whole book carries a sense of impartial conviction. The Australians are shown as callously unconcerned by an old Frenchwoman's death, but voluntarily going out of their way to do all they could, as long as there was a chance of saving her life. The curtain is drawn a little wider on the British soldiers' dislike of the French and all their ways, which has been so surprisingly hidden until recently. " Retreat" is a book which makes a profound and moving appeal. "Retieat," by C, R. Benstead. (Methuen.Ji