THE BOOKSHELF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF

GOLD IN MEXICO AN IRONIC ADVENTURE When Mr. B. Traven wrote " The Death-Ship " lie had a human story • to tell of. things he had seen and done / himself, life at its dregs, stark and raw. His new book, " The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," is not another " DeathShip," but it is a very good story, nevertheless. The earlier book was actual experience plus embroidery well added; the present book is flamboyant fiction built up on a very plain back- . bone of actual experience, and Mr. Travel's imagination is not always equal to the task. Events do not always happen in a logical way, because it would diminish the excitement of the story. The story is the old one of the curse of gold, the blight which it spreads on all that it touches, its disintegration of morals, its devaluation of life. Three vicariously collected men sot off / with mules to win gold from the wilderness of Mexico. With toil and thirst and slavery they gain enough for their needs and prepare to bring it in. Then comes the subtle difference that gold makes. They were not bad men when they were in civilisation, just average humanity. They are not bad now so much as devoid of good. The rough hardship of their life and the presence of the " demon gold " has taken away every impulse except material ones. Their orderly round of gradual gold winning is ' suddenly replaced by the huge gamble of life, where a swing of the pendulum deprives men of fortune or life at a stroke. They had to contend with bandits, Indians, the local police, themselves and the gold itself. The book ends on a burst of loud, ironic laughter at the folly of man's desires. What matters it? 'Man bands himself to man to fight Nature. He comes away with the spoils and is immediately attacked by his fellows. Both lose, and Nature regains her own, and man goes out a. handful of dust. No wonder Mr. Traven laughs at the vanity of human strife. His ending seems to lend dignity, to the whole book, and to lift it into the realm of classic story. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," by B. Traven. (Chatto and Windus.)

BOOK OF SHORT STORIES LOUIS GOLDING'S COLLECTION Mr. Louis Golding's collection of tales, "Tho Dooxnington Wanderer," is not outstanding. He is obviously more at his best in those lengthy Jewish family chronicles "Magnolia Street" and "Five Silver Daughters," which have established his reputation. But these .short stories if not in the first class are extremely readable. Mr. Golding writes easily, and there is a warmth and intimacy about his stories which quickly extends itself to the reader. " The Doomington Wanderer " tells of a simple most ordinary little Jew who dreamed of over the hills and far away as he worked on his, office stool. ; By extraordinary good fortune his uncle left him money so he packed his bag without the least hesitation and followed in the wake of his dreams. But he no sooner arrived in the South Seas than he began to franker for the sight of his mother's floury hands as she cooked in her kitchen. He could not hear the soft voiceas of the Islanders

for he was filled with, an intense longing to the wailing voices of his / people at prayer in the Synagogue. Back he came and once safely home his dream of far-away places haunted him again. There are other tales less simple than the title story, but all are deftly written, all are very readable, very few are inevitable and none are par- | > ticularly memorable. It is an excellent collection for a train journey. " The ■ Doomington Wanderer," by Louis Golding.- (Gollancz.) _

% ROMANCE TO THE RESCUE ' __. "SEVEN GOTHIC TALES" ' / " Seven Gothic Tales," by Isak Dineien, shoulders its way in among the modern novels, and it is to be expected that many readers will find its oldfashioned demeanour unattractive. Let those readers but glance at the first story and they will be at once won over. The author owes something to Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales. ' All his characters have a tale to tell, and the special talent required for telling it to the best advantage so that the half dozen tales in the book are extraordinarily good entertainment. The crowded canvas is in itself an excitement. There is so much to take in, and the whole so richly coloured and so swift moving that one needs must scamper to keep pace with the throng. Romance, a rare figure nowadays, walks abroad in all her beauty. Under her cloak are lovers in distress, aged Counts and Countesses with fabulous || power over the young, highwaymen, nunneries, young princes who travel abroad all decked with the trappings of the early nineteenth century. One might easily tire of such brilliant company were it not for the wit which sharpens their tales. This, combined with the author's delicious sensibility, leaves the reader at Mr. Dinesen's >f . mercy. These are tales that would en- .■ tertain in any . age, and if they are complete with the trappings of an earlier century they carry beneath their raillery a knowledge and philosophy % which belongs just as surely to the present day. "■ Seven Gothic Tales,'" by Isak Dinesen. (Putnams, London.) BOOK SOCIETY'S CHOICE HUNGARIAN HEROINE In " Angel Making Music " Ferenc Molnar reveals the agony of unrequited , first love, lrma Lietzen, in Venice with - / her parents, 'is dependent for entertainment on Aurel Szabo, a young clerk in a bank. Her father is absent on business most of the day and her mother is more or less an invalid. Aurel, who had once been Mr. Lietzen's secretary, has been commissioned by him to show his daughter round Venice, lrma is the spoiled only daughter of wealthy parents. She falls in love with Aurel and, stimulated by his lack of response, makes youthful and awkward overtures. The situation beconies complicated when Aurel finds himself attracted by the charming if young nurse who attends Mrs. Liet|p Zen. All readers are prepared to love a lover, hut lrma, in spite of her unhappiness, fails to get the reader's H sympathy. She is an objectionable child, jp and in her misery at seeing the lad J| £ she loves turn toward another, she does |v some extraordinary and unforgivable . things. Her feelings and reactions are cleverly portrayed. She lives, but seems ||g 'too slight a character for the heroine of the book. She suffers, but deserves H all she gets. The book has, however, re- ||§ ceived the Book Society's blessing. " Angel Making Music," by Ferenc Molnar. . Translated from th? Hungarian by Victor Katona and Peggy Boswell. (Ivor, Nicholson and Watson.)