THESE AMERICANS!

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 35 (Supplement)

THESE AMERICANS!

A GERMAN POKES FUN It is pleasant to read a satire on America by someone who appears, at all events, to have some affection for the country and its people. These critics are generally so bitter and contemptuous that the reader cannot help feeling a little sorry for the Americans, which he feels instinctively to be from the very nature of things, a little ridiculous. The writer in this exceptional case is Helene ScheuRiesz, and Gretchen, who "discovers America," is her extremely likeable mouth-piece. The Americans are interested in Gretchen because she is a German warvictim and therefore an interesting psychological study, and Gretchen is interested in America because she is an explorer. Her explorations are amorous as well as geographical, which gives the Americans wonderful scope for their psychology, but of course it iA jeally Gretchen who does all the genuine psycho-analysis, while the author makes clever but kindly fun of the pseudo-psychology of which the Americans are soi fond, and which, for some time after the movement began, made life so uncomfortable for all who did not believe in and belong to it. The whole story is told in a series of letters from Gretchen to her German friend Mitzi, and though we never meet the latter, nor even have the pleasure of reading her replies, we feel that anyone to whom one could write such frank and intimate letters, without fear of jealousy or scorn, must be an extremely nice person to know. Wo might not all get quite as much delight and excitement as Gretchen did out of discovering America, but there is at least a treat in store for you if you have not yet discovered Gretchen. "Gretohen Discovers America," by Helene Scheu-Riesz. (Dent).