THE BOOKSHELF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21141, 26 March 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF.

REMOTE PEOPLES* an engaging traveller. Thcro was a time when it required few gifts except, energy and money to write an acceptable book of travel. There were so many strange and remote parts of the earth that the mere recitation of the sights and peoples encountered carried the book along. But since the aeroplano lias brought all parts of the earth within a few.days of one another, and has conquered at a stride the defence of forests, deserts and rivers,, since all kinds ot transport have advanced to make travel easy, a writer of travels needs special gifts to bring his work before the public. tfofc everyone agrees with Mr. Evelyn [Waugh's morals or methods, but everyone will that be has the gift of vivid expression, and most people who have read his novels will be anxious to read his travel book, " Remote Peoples." Xhey will not bo disappointed, lor it is a delightful book, full of selected pictures of the places ho saw, keen insight into the characteristics of the people lie encountered, and a ready wit directed against himself and his acquaintances, impartially. He went to Abyssinia to see the coronation of Ras Tofari in 1930, then to Zanzibar, Ethiopia and Central Africa, visiting among other places the much discussed colony of Kenya. His attitude at times is tinged with sheer wonder, which eits rather strangely and attractively on such a sophisticated young man as Mr. Waugh. He can only compare the sights he saw with " Alice in Wonderland. They were so far removed from Western standards that they astonished and fascinated him. It would not be fair to let off the author's guns beforehand. Readers will find " Remote Peoples " an engaging book which goes a little way below the surface in human insight, written in delightful prose with wit and human understanding. " Remote Peoples," by Evelyn "Waugh. (Duckworth.) DISTINCTIVE BOOK. UNDERCURRENTS IN SPAIN. One has often seen a map in which the country to be illustrated is coloured and printed in detail with its various features, and the surrounding countries remain mere lines, without colour or relief. In " Shirley Sanz,". Mr. V. S. Pritchett employs a similar method of portrayal, ignoring all events in the outside world, and all closer events which do not shed their light on the interplay of character and emotion among his chief actors. Shirley, the wilful and emotional daughter of an English parsonage, achieves marriage with Lewis Sanz on the eve of his departure for his home in Spain. Shirley is the often-met type of woman who dramatises her; life by imagining herself the horoine of ever-changing romantic environments. Conventional by instinct, innocent by upbringing, she has the dangerous belief that she is born to bp free. Contrasting with her is Cynthia, bitter, disillusioned, ill-used by love, whose instincts from birth have left her as free as the birds. Both these women find themselves in the same romantic town in Andalusia, the one married into a typical Spanish family community-home, of which in spite of her seeming feckless ways she soon becomes the mistress; the other, a brutally frank but loyal member of the household. It is the instincts and reactions of these two opposing, temperaments on each other, and Shirley's easygoing husband, and his partner and cousin, a quick active man of_ more subtle intuition, even more foreign to each other in temperament than are the girls, that forms the drama of this very distinctive book. In the semi-tropic and sensuous atmosphere of Spain, the undercurrent of crossed emotion grows ever more tense and untenable, until an outbreak by strikers in the town sets it alight and it bursts into flame most excitingly. A good deal seems to happen suddenly, but Mr. Pritchett becomes so vague that it is difficult to say what is the end of it all. Up till this point Mr. Pritchett has written a highly sensitive book whose style is both subtle and distinctive. If in its romantic setting it becomes over sensuous at times, it is quite in the modern tradition. " Shirley Sanz." by \. S. Pritchett. (Gollancz.J PRIZE JEW LIFE STORY. SUCCESS OF A FIGHTER. • " I got where I am by fighting ever since 1 could walk almost, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. It ain't what you earn alone, young lady, though nothing talks like money nowadays, and italways will. But it's the fun of making it." Such was the creed of Abe Kummer, formerly Kuprinsky, the American Russian Jew garter manufacturer, who is the hero' of Elrna Levingen's 2000 dollar prize story of Jewish life, " Grapes of Canaan." Abe was born very near the gutter, and all his life the hand of every man was against him, the race hatred of the Gentiles, the jealous regard of his fellow Jews, the competition of trade rivals, the envy which success brings. The book lias two excellent features, the device of relating the family history through a newspaper interview arid the faithful picture, of Jewish life which it presents. There is the careful peddling instincts of the Jews, cent by added cent, laying the foundations of fortune, the shrewd commeiciai brain, the clannish- 1 ness, the passionate desire to 6tand well i with one's neighbours no matter at what i cost, the sentimental love of family, which ; at its most affecting moments can reckon ] its emotions in terms of dollars, the gener- i osity mixed with cupidity and meanness; ( and clinging fo it ever traces of the ghetto from which the family sprang. In other ( respects, however, " Grapes of Canaan " i bears out the maxim that the best books are not produced .by cash prizes. I -Grapes of Canaan," by Klva Levington. < (Jarrolds). ! :