JEWS AND GENTILES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

JEWS AND GENTILES.

TWO SIDES OF A STREET. Something in Ihp nature of a sn ;;;i is furnished by Mr. Louis Holding in his latest, book, " Magnolia Street." ll i an absorbing story that is certain to command wide attention and make many new admirers for the author. Rut. because of Hie maimer in which the story is treated it is just, as certain that Mr. Guiding will have many reviewers tolling him how he could have handled this splendid "material to better advantage. In Magnolia Street, situated in the drab, North-country town Dooniington—which might be. Manchester—working-class English live on 0110 side of the road and Jewish immigrants on the other. While tho Gentiles aro permanent residents, the Hebrews aro merely birds of passago with Magnolia Street a stepping sloue on the journey from Lithuania to the United States of America. Tho householders in tho even numbers and their " neighbours opposite" aro as far apart as the Poles in their manners, religion and customs, but as neighbours and people on the same ' social plane they must " mix," and as tho reader watches the process he will bo highly interested, for there are many novel situations created and not a lew complications. Colonials will perhaps find more in this book to interest them than pooplo who have lived a largo slice of their lives in big cities of the Old World with a largo and well-established Jewish quarter. Strange as it may seem in this year of grace one comes upon folk who imagino that all Jews aro " Shylocks" at heart. Mr. Louis Golding will show them, and very convincingly too, that many of his Hebrew characters can bo ranked among " the salt o' the earth." Great souls and very lovable are some of the little Jewish mothers in this book, while the lives lived by the old men reveal beautiful minds that corruption and meanness cannot touch.

Billig, the marriage-broker, is an inter- |! esting personality who really is deserving |j of a book to himself. While his exploits ii in the present novel are meant to be only j incidental to the story, a critical reader ! might think that they are allowed too || much prominence. Perhaps we shall meet j| Billig again in his own book. " Mafmolia Street," by Louis Golding. |! (Gollancz.)