"SPUR OF MORNING"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21924, 6 October 1934, Page 10 (Supplement)

"SPUR OF MORNING"

MR. A. MULGAN'S NOVEL

So wide and appreciative a public has Mr. Alan Mulgan won by his English travel masterpiece " Home," and his narrative poem " Golden Wedding," that the publication of his first novel has boeu awaited with unusually keen expectation by all interested in New Zealand literature. Those who take an interest in the Dominion's two prominent diversions, politics and football, will find that ".Spur of Morning " fulfils expectation, for tho main interest of the story centres round a young New Zealander, who achieves more than ordinary fame in both. Mr. Mulgan is thoroughly at homo in handling both themes, and lias woven a picturesque and colourful background, against which many incidents of bygone days stand out clearly. In his foreword, the author speaks of the story as one of a mew land in seas remote from tho centre of tho world, set in a time that to-day seems distant, although within his own generation, " Looking back to it across the happenings of thirty years." he says, " it seems another age, and as if isolated from that in which wo now live." It is this complete detachment from life as lived to-day that gives tho book a curious atmosphere of unreality. Tho characters talk and walk in a world that has ceased to exist, men and girls alike, the product of an ago so different from our own that their stilted utterances and quaint conventional observances sieem not merely old-fashioned, but almost fantastic, until ono remembers that the story is set in tho very beginning of the present century, when it was quite possible, for instance, for a party of young people to mix in tho happy freedom of a camping holiday, and at the end of it still be calling one another "Miss" and " Mr."

Realm of Politics la this atmosphere of " long time ago," the political ambitions and Socialist tendencies of Mark Bryan, the principal character, come to birth, to full fruition and Bwift defeat. Mark is the son of a poor man, with fiery Irish blood in his veins; the father is sketched with very light touch, enters the story but little, yet so well is he drawn, that when tho book is finished and the characters reviewed, he emerges as a stronger personality than even his ambitious soil:. Mark is met first at the Eden Grammar School, a young rebel, who refuses to stand when his, class rises to cheer a British victory in the Boer War. He enters a newspaper office, finds the life not to his liking, decides to 'take his degree, and becomes the hero of the hour after scoring a spectacular tty in a 'varsity football match. In the hour of - his triumph he is approached by tho Labour party, and accedes to their request that ho stand itor Parliament. Political life calls out Mark's latent power and fighting spirit—-this portion of the story is of gripping Interest, and contains many an illuminating sidelight on the ways of Parliament, its paltry intrigues and ' the ignoble methods employed by the votecatchers. One really great figure emerges, that of Braxton, tho Labour Header, obviously moulded on tho unique personality of Richard John Seddon. But gradually Mark's morale as a good Labour member is undermined by his contact with men in ; other walks of life, by tho broadening of his outlook,, and by his love for Sylvia, the daughter of the great capitalist magnate, John Feldon, and when ho finally loses hisi seat through a nasty piece of work in the way of votesplitting, engineered by Feldon. he retaliates suitably by marrying the magnate's daughter. Other Characters

There are many other characters — too many for the preservation of unity and directness of plot. Phillip, Mark's best friend, is very well drawn, but he is not a particularly interesting character, his chief role being that of foil to the more virile Mark. Sylvia and Barbara, the two principal girl characters, are charming young misses of the dear dead days heyond recall. Mark's mother, who would have been the most interesting feminine character in the book, disappears entirely when Mark leaves the family circle. In one point Mr. Mnlgan scores a triumph—his masterly handling of the background against which his characters move in work and play. It is a truly New Zealand setting. The New Zealand atmosphere is powhere stressed, there is hardly a word about the Maori, clematis, or Southern Cross, yet the author provides a setting of beauty for his story that only New Zealand could feup]ply. " Spur of Morning," by Alan Mulgan. (Dent.)