VOODOOISM IN HAITI

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

VOODOOISM IN HAITI

GERMANY'S EDGAR WALLACE It is said that Herr Hans Possenclorf is the Edgar Wallace of Germany. In " Damballa Calls " he has written a good story about Voodooism in Haiti. Since Africa and Tibet ceased to chill the blood, Haiti has come forward as the land where all things are possible, provided they are terrible enough. Some of his story is based on fact, but most of it is fiction. It would be hard to say which was the more grim. The revolution is a minor St. Bartholomew's Day, while the love of a young American for a mulatto girl ends in a way calculated to produce the best kind of nightmare. Voodooism runs like a dark thread through tho whole book. It and the colour question are the two matters around which the life of Haiti revolves, and here they are both given due, but not exaggerated, significance. That is typical of Herr Possendorf. He has written a thriller, but he remembers that his readers are adults and endowed with adult intelligence. His story of love and death in Haiti is an impressive bit of work, because it takes care never to sink below a certain level—of style as well as of accuracy. " Damballa Calls," by Hans Possendorf. (Hutchinson.)

DOMESTIC COMEDY RICH BROTHER'S RETURN "Friendly Relations" is a comparatively quiet, book. Of its kind it is excellent: English domestic comedy dono with a refreshing acidity. The Gleason sisters, three married and one single, are looking forward to the arrival from India of their rich brother Bart. Tho married ones have all planned how thej can make use of a rich brother; their husbands, each quite able to maintain his own household in the way he thinks fit, resent the idea of being beholden to Bart, rich though he may be. The preparation for Bart's arrival — the jealousies of the sisters and the growing restiveness of the husbands — is very skilfully done. Then Bart appears, seedy and boastful, and with him a very odd wife. And, after a time, when he does nothing by way of return for his sister's hospitality, it becomes apparent tbat, far from being rich, he is on his beamends. The pace of the story quickens, and the comedy begins to have a bitter tang. There is no sentimentality in Miss Audrey Lucas. Tragedy may develop from the misconception about Bart, but the writer does not lose command of the shape of her story. *' Friendly Relations," by Audrey Luoas (Collins.)