RECENT FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

Maid In Waiting." By John Galsworthy (Wm. Helnemann). “ The Trap." By Allen Havens (the Hogarth Press, 10s Cd net). " Forsaken Confessions of a Priest Who Returned.” . By Stephen Bowen (Williams and Norgato). .. „ , _ " Facing the Music." By Leonard Cooper (Hodder and Stoughton). “ The Waters Under the Earth." By Martha Ostenso (Thornton Buttcrworth). " Life Is Such A Kush.” By Christine JopeSlade (Cassell). "The Peacock Plucked.” By Leonora Carr (Mills and Boon). , , „ _ “ Windfall Harvest. By Marlbel Lee (Ward, Lock). , " The Strange Citadel." By Klchard Spain (Herbert Jenkins). "Rod Autumn." By Hugh Pendextcr (W. Collins Sons). ' • .. .. (Each Gs net. unless otherwise stated).

The Forsyte’s Relatives “Well, I always tell Michael that your side of his family is one of the least expressed and most interesting phenomena •left in England. You’re wholly unvocal, utterly" out of the limelight. 100 unsensational for the novelists, and yet you're there, and go on being there, and I don’t quite know how. Every mortal thing’s against 'you, from Death Duties down to gramophones. But you persist generally at the ends of the earth, doing things that nobody knows or cares anything, about. Most of your sort haven t even got Condafords now to come home and die in; and yet you still have roots; and a sense of duty.” The speaker is Fleur; the novel, as practically any novel reader would guess without being told, is by John Galsworthy; the listener is Dinny Charwell (pronounced Cherreil), an English heroine, who represents a type Mr Galsworthy believes in. They 3 t le all types, the characters in ‘ Maid In Waiting.” They typify a section of upper and upper middle class Englishmen, who. mostly impoverished now-, are born to serve the Empire, and, amidst changing conditions, serve it quietly and well. “Roots, and a sense of duty, are the characteristics of the race, and Mr Galsworthy believes that the British public, the political, the commercial, the artisan public, does not appreciate the worth ot the service that is given. But roots still allow some privilege to those who have them, and in the end it is privilege more than obedience to a sense ol duty which resolves the trouble that comes to the. Charwell family. Mr Galsworthy does not, perhaps,-sit down to write a novel round a plot, as the Victorians mainly did, but he is, on the other hand, too conscientious to write a novel-'With-out a plot, as many moderns do. ■■-Mam In Waiting” has a plot that is entirely intriguing, and a second theme, that or the problem of insanity, which holds equal interest. For the developments we refer readers to the book itself, confident that if they know their Galaworthy they have a maximum of quiet delight and satietaction to obtain from his new work. Here we see those family conferences in which he excels —conferences in London, at country homes, and anxious gatherings in the Police Court when one of the family is threatened; we meet those frank, solid Englishmen who are a tradition, and a living one, in Great Britain; those calm, cool women and level-headed girls who make wives for them. It is all Ga worthy, and it is all honestly good. it Mr Galsworthy is not a great novelist tor future generations, he is a great social historian for them, and he is certainly one of the best we can read to-day.

Panorama of War “The Trap,” a long—almost a foibiddincly long—novel, represents another attempt to interpret the human element in reaction to war, and also to gu’c a panorama of war, that is, the Great War, itself. To say “an attempt is to do Mr Havens an injustice, for as far as any man could succeed in giving an impression of the war as a whole in its cumulative effect, and its . progress towards a human debacle,” he is successful, ihe personal interest within the novel is in three families, two English, and one naturalised German, and the chief pr ■ tagonists lan Fisher, an artist, Kay Lutterworth, and Rudolf Wolff. . lan Fisher is a man of intelligent and independent views, and in his resistance tp the enlistment frenzy and ultimate capitulation, we see reflected, surely, the attitude of many thousands of equally thoughtful men who, uninfluenced by lingo ism, and not lacking courage, enlisted and fought against their own convictions, It is a fact, and whether one for reioicing or dismay, that public opinion is stronger than the opinion of any individual may be. .It is a fact, also, that public opinion, moulded to pacifism to-day. would m another wax be quickly pounded into the form i,f Mars. Wolff, on the other hand, is given no opportunity of thinking at all. He is in Germany when the war commences, and, despite . his .d 11 ” 8 * 1 naturalisation, is pushed into the conflict. Round the story of these men, ot their sufferings and the sufferings t ol others in their families, Mr Havens builds his expansive, penetrating struc--true showing the war and points of view concerning the war. He is thorough (there is a full bibliography), he is earnest, he is, with intellectual reserrations, unbiased, and. his. novel, long as it is. can be read with interest. It there is lacking a touch of what must for want of a better term, be called inspiration, that is compensated for by the accuracy of his picture. If there are any who are not already well versed in the war, as expounded in post-war literature, they, especially, should read Mr Havens’s impressive book. A Priest in Wartime

Stephen Bowen’s “ Forsaken ” is like “The Trap,” not an easy book, to appraise. It is an attempt to give the feelings and reactions of a . delicatelynurtured young man who, while eligible for a post as padre, determines, to enlist as a soldier. The situation in England immediately before his enlistment, tlie veiled insinuations of sheltering behind his “ parson’s ” calling, the misery of indecision, and the indescribable relief when that period was past; the training and the rough indelicate kindliness of his fellow-trainees, are well described. The return to England, crippled so badly that an invalid chair is his portion, the decision to abandon his career as an Anglican clergyman, and his feelings as he listens to the service and speeches on Armistice Day are, one feels, true to life. Unreality enters when the story goes out to France and the company to which the speaker belongs is in the trenches. The reactions described may be accurate enough as far as the particular individual is concerned, but they seem to be rather heavily tinged with a form of self-pity which tends to become wearisome. The book is not uninteresting, nor dare one say it is not quite true to life, but questionings about overdrawn reactions and too-elaborate pictures of lacerated feelings and frayed nerves will keep coming to the mind. “ Forsaken is certainly not a book for an idle evening, for it is not at all easy to read. “ Facing the Music "

One cannot, however much one admires “The Trap,” help asking how many people will wish to go to it, compared with the number that is seeking such light recreation as exists in “Facing the Music.” For Mr Leonard Cooper’s novels wc have a great respect. He deserves more recognition than, we suspect, he has yet obtained, for his good-humoured cynicism, his keen observation of character. “Little Island” was almost a little masterpiece in its reconstruction of a Napoleon in decline not unlike the real Napoleon, and “Facing the Music,” while definitely superficial, is as definitely amusing, neither a slap-stick comedy nor a subtle, the balance nicely maintained between light farce ami music-hall drama. The story is of the trials of the Axhridgo Triennial Musical Festival Committee in arranging the piece do resistance of their festival, the first presentation in England of the Niederrnaiin symphony for voices and orchestra. Vhe base of the trouble was that Herr Niederniann insisted upon the chief solo part being taken by Mine. Nicolai. The lady was eminently fitted to take the part, but she happened to be Niedermann’s mistress, a position the committee regarded with horror. The recital of the steps taken by the committee, and independently by Niederniann, to solve the difficulty is brightly done. Mr Cooper works along conventional lines in this novel, but so competently as to make the line appear new.

A Study in Frustration The typo of earthy, almost morbidly unpleasant story that is told in “The Waters Under the Earth ’’ is not unusual in American fiction, and Mias Martha Ostcnso is a capable exponent of the

theme. Her protagonists are an unsuccessful printer in a Middle Western town in the United States and his family. Matt Welland, a religious fanatic, loves his family, we are forced to believe, and shows his love for them by trying to destroy all happiness, individuality, freedom, that should be theirs. Carla, the youngest of the children, is the only one who has the vitality and the will power to rise superior to the brow-beatings of her father, and we leave her, at the end of the book, going her independent way. Of the others, the three sons become dreary drudges, one daughter looses her repressions in a manner, that disgraces her, another marries a drunkard, and a third is crippled for life in endeavouring to elope. Miss Osteuso has a sure pen, and her characterisation is, for the most part, good, but-“ The Waters Under the Earth ” remains merely depressing reading.

Such a Rush ... Christine Jope-Slade, as her readers will know, has a brisk technique which suits her new story. She has, too, a way of saying very astute things, which forces us to give her more credit as a novelist than we usually feel like bestowing on her. She has, also, a passion for the transferred epithet, for repeating the words in the mouths of her principals ad lib, till they become but a weary pleasure,, and such sentences keep popping up as: “ She had a passionate and a strong desire to put out her mind, almost as if it were a hand, and touch his mind.” In fact, while Christine Jope-Slade’s new novel is every bit as readable as her older ones, as we follow Lorraine to London receptions, to her cottage in the country, and on her trip to the United States, and learn of her affection for her husband, of her child-bearing and her search for peace, everything is really such a rush that we haven’t time, and if we had we wouldn t dare, to think about it or try to analyse it.

Three Angles and Another ■ “ The Peacock Plucked ” is frankly and unashamedly an “ eternal triangle ” story, with another angle thrown in for good measure, but Miss Leonora Carr handles her characters with a deft touch, and the book never becomes flat. There are few people who will not admire and pity Michael Strong, starving himself in order that his invalid wife, Viva, a spoilt doll, shall not know of his fallen _ fortunes, or who will not sympathise with Scilla Stratford, young and full of joie de vivre, who worships him. Then there is Wave Kammera, a fourth angle, who wants Michael as a woman desires a _ fur coat or a motor car, but whose artificial atmosphere nauseates him. To compensate for her the author introduces Michael’s aunt, whose very untidiness, which comes second only to the inward beauty of her character, is in itself a tonic. The plot itself is an age-old one, but Miss Carr s handling of it is so sure that it flows with an ease and tranquillity that are very absorbing.

The Home-lover "Windfall Harvest,” likewise, contains no new theme, and casts little reflective light upon an old one, but-the story is deftly handled by a writer who shows confidence in the use of her material. Patrick Blair, one of a family of rather eccentric people, loses his reputation as air pilot in a crash. He was in love with his cousin, Merrill, but in her absence impulsively marries Lyndsay, the gentle and home-loving. When a child is born to Merrill out of wedlock, Lyndsay adopts it, but is distressed to And that her hueband is still intriguing with his cousin. She saves her home in the end in a_ manner that readers will consider sufficiently satisfactory.

Thrill Upon Thrill Mr Richard Spain has no finesse; linguistic acrobatics have no place in His repertoire. In “The Strange Citadel he has- laid himself out to crowd mystery upon mystery and thrill upon thrill, and there will be few who will deny that he has succeeded. What most people would consider a sufficiently exciting a man thrown on a Loudon pavement with face and skull battered beyond recognition —Mr Spain regards merely as a preliminary to a series of adventures which enable him to restore the finances of a Carpathian Kingdom. The trail set for him by a capricious multi-millionaire crosses many strange lauds and involves him in many exciting adventures, but, telling his story in the first person, Mr Spain never for once allows the imagination to be too flagrantly drawn upon. “ Red Autumn ” “ Red Autumn ” is a very interesting story of the year 1812, when the British were at war with the United States. Manuel Lisa, the founder of the Missouri Fur Company, and a man of sagacity, especially in dealing with the Indians, had gone away north up the Missouri before it was known that war had been declared. Realising the danger he was in because of his ignorance of this, and knowinn- that agents of Great Britain wou d be at" work among the Indians who lived northward toward the Canadian border, his friends send Mandan Ramsay, who also has a good knowledge of Indian ways and dialects, to make the facts known to Lisa. Striking up the river from bt. Louis, and then through Indian territory, Ramsay and hie companions encounter thrills fo last a lifetime. Treacherous Europeans plot their downfall. Medicine Crow is among the well-disposed American Indians trying to influence them against the States, and by a trick, clever because of its absolute simplicity, Ramsay and his companion, Richardson, are captured by the enemy Indians. Their experiences and final escape make up an interesting story which we believe readers will quite enjoy. V. V. It.