RECENT FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21994, 1 July 1933, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

«City Without a Heart.” (Helnemann). " Grand Canary." By A. J. Cronin (Golla”CHa'rk to Hover.” By Lettice Ulpha Cooper (Hodder and Stoughton). „ " Jonah.” By Louis Stone (Endeavour Press. 6S " TUie Rip.” By Robin Temple (Ward, L °"The Wicked Captain.” By Alice Hassle <C " Purpio Patches.” By Richard Starr Brunner." By Douglas Allen Grant (Tiiornton Butterworth). _ . 44 The Hidden Door.* 1 By Frank L. Packard (Hodder and Stoughton). ** Gentleman of Bio.** By Arthur Mills (C ° The’'Long Fighter.” By Charles Wesley Sanders (Collins). •• One Crazy Cowboy." By Charles Ballew ne {_ unless otherwise stated.)

Mary in Movieland Only people who do not 89 To the kinema will not want to read , City VVxtnout a Heart,” which tells more about Hollywood, the centre of the industry in the United States, than any possible number of those magazines devoted to the “ confessions ” of “ stars. ■* he author of “ City Without a Heart evidently had painful, if not uueutertaining, experience of Hollywood, and has written the book as a means of getting the memory out of his system. That much one concludes, and it is stated further that he is not unknown to literary fame in Ungland. His concealment is ,diie, presumably, to a hope of a fresh Hollywood contract at some future date. 1 or, or course, 'the United States kinema industry can offer rich prizes. The money, the Californian climate, appear to be the only inducements. “It is a city of disenchantments and of paradoxes. Beneath ' its hot, golden, glittering sun, cunning and treachery disguised as good fellows walk-hand in hand. In Hollywood, you will be wise and lose by your wisdom, and you will commit follies that shall inspire ‘ hosannas/ Your friendships will betray you and the you make will bring you fame. You will discover violent emotions that you never dreamed of, and passions that trip vou up with every step you take. But fondness of true love you will not find. . • That is what a scenario writer tells Mary, the lovely, life-loving Cornish girl, when she is bound for Hollywood under a handsome contract,: as the latest discovery.” Alary does not believe him, but, sensible girl as she is, she has _ still a lot to learn of Hollywood. In this novel the various lessons are described with some bitterness. We read of degenerate morons who are paid fortunes for their profiles, of clowns with, intelligence, and women whose beauty is seldom more than skin deep; of the robbers, sneaks, cynics who seem to preponderate in Hollywood. Mary is betrayed by a girl she has befriended; she is flung aside without consideration when her employers, dissatisfied with her work, are trying to provoke her into breaking contract: she suffers and grows hard in the process, and the novel ends as life dictates. “ City Without a Heart” is not a cheaply sensational novel but a striking illumination of certain phases of the kinema industry. Though the writing is sometimes hurried, the general presentation is good.

“Grand Canary” For the scenes of his new novel “Grand Canary” A. J. Cronin has gone abroad to the South Americas, and first half of the tale is on shipboard. The Aureola is not a large vessel, but its handful of passengers have an extraordinary range of character —such a collection of personalities as a young scientist suffering from a breakdown, a Cockney procuress, an Irish ex-prizefighter who reads Plato, a titled young Englishwoman, and her moral-less friend, a bigoted American missionary and ms saintly but highly impressionable sister. Mr Cronin contrives that during the short voyage several unexpected contacts should be made among these people, and the scientist, despite his appalling boorishness, is the richer by a friend, the Irishman, and a soul-partner, the titled lady. Then he goes up-country from Santa Cruz to assist in fighting a fever epidemic. The missionary's sister, who also loves him, renders assistance, the lady of ms dreams arrives romantically and collapes with fever. . Meanwhile the missionary has become demoralised by women and drink; the Irishman’s hopes of fortune have been shattered. When he has secured a sufficiently morbid tableau Mr Cronin relents, and by means of his sensuous prose restores order and some happiness to his characters. “ Grand Canary ” is not an impressive work_ to come from aii author of Mr Cronin’s reputation. Sometimes he writes very well, as m the two pages 167-8 describing an encounter with a peasant girl, yet his description of a fist fight, 50 pages on, is feeble.

The Author

Archibald Joseph; Cronin. M.D., M.R.C.P., is a Scotsman, and was born in' 1896. His apprenticeship as author was served in the writing of publications entitled “A History of Aneurism” and “Dust-inhalation by Haematite Miners. In the summer of 1930 he took a long vacation, and wrote the novel Hatter s Castle,” which was accepted by Gollancz, the first firm to which it was submitted, and chosen by the Book Society. His second work of fiction was Three Loves.” “Grand Canary” was said to have been a best-seller prior to publication He is married, his wife being a doctor also, and has two sons. Recrea* tions: Golf, travel, fishing.

An English Spa Lettice Ulpha Cooper’s collection of patients and staff members at an English spa hotel is more convincing, and she puts them through their paces with much less pretension than Dr Cronin. Nicholas Ampleforth, a company promoter, discovers certain qualities in the water of a haunted spring, harnesses it to a pump room, and turns an old house nearby into an hotel. “Hark to Rover! ” is successful for a time, and Miss Cooper s work consists in sketching lightly, but with good-natured piquancy, its rise and decline. She has drawn her characters shrewdly, particularly Mr ■ Ampleforth and Jim Harding, whose regeneration is. perhaps, the one cure the spa can boast. The Sydney “ Pushes ’ Louis Stone’s “ Jonah ” was first published in 1911. when it earned from John Galsworthy the tribute:—“l’ve lapped up your novel, which I think extraordinarily actual, vivid, and good. The publishers of a new edition, the Endeavour Press, emphasise the interest which “Jonah” derives historically in its earlier chapters from its descriptions of the larrikin “pushes,” which apparently infested Sydney not so long ago. These chapters will, doubtless, prove diverting to Australians, and moralists may obtain satisfaction from reading further, to learn of the redemption of Jonah from leadership of one of the gangs. “ Tide Rip ” Robin Temple usually provides milder themes than in his “Tide Rip. Die novel has the virtues of ingenuity .Ind sincerity, but there are too many coincidences, however delicately handled, to make the plot credible. It turns on the fact that Roger Kingdom, the wealthy ironmaster, is contemplating a second marriage. when his wife, whom he had be--1 loved to be dead, is being tried for murder. The defending counsel is on the verge of ruin, from which only Roger could save him. and it is his daughter Roger desires to marry. Iron' these high-tension elements Mr Temple mis made a satisfactorily fast-moving tale. The cover design on the book is striking. Pleasant Romance A charming heroine, Ann Kevin; a picturesque locale, a little house perched on a Welsh hillside, overlooking the sea; some other pleasant characters, _ and a spice of mystery. _ These are bHo ingredients which, lovingly handled bv Ahce Massie, make “The Wicked Captain a diverting romance. The wicked captain is the previous tenant of the house to which Ann goes with her married tricnd and family, and it is Ann s pleasure to dispel the unfavourable legends which had grown up about him. We are left in the belief that with his return she will not be disillusioned.

Three Girls Mr Starr seems to be able to create attractive girls with the ease with which a conjuror produces rabbits from ji hat. In “ Purple Patches ” he sketches the love affairs of three shop girls, whose mission in life is the extraction of the utmost enjoyment out of it. Happy and carefree, yet possessed of a native shrewdness, they drift blithely from one little adventure to another, their dialogue, which comprises the major portion of the book, being a blending of frivolity and quaint philosophy. “Purple Patches ”is essentially a book for the person who wishes to give his brain a brief holiday in pleasant surroundings.

Weird Thrill* In “ Monsieur Brunner ” the author has several bizarre theories to advance. Working on the hypothesis that a bubble can exist indefinitely under water,'he visualises an enormous air pocket, or cavern, in one of the unsounded holes which abound in the floor of the ocean, inhabited by human beings whose intelligence is far superior to that of members of any known race. The discovery of this region is made by Monsieur Brunner, whom the knowledge has already, when the story opens, driven mad. But genius and madness are, it is stated, divided by only a very thin line, and Monsieur Brunner is responsible for acts of genius which are equalled in fantastic conception only by his acts of revolting-callousness. This story is not for the reader who is prone to nightmare, for Mr Grant has imparted to even his most incredible situations a realism which greatly accentuates the sense of horror which they inspire.

“ The Hidden Door " Colin Hewitt is a successful writer of mystery tales. To him comes Reddy Turner ’with a story of a callous murder which “ The Mask ” had perpetrated. Before he can do more than tell Colin a few facts and indicate where a certain letter is to be found, he fall* dead-shot by “ The Mask.” Hewitt: has promised to carry out Turner’s wishes, and in pursuit of this duty he is taken to “somewhere on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” and then back to New York. In his adventures he learns that all the marvellous mysteries he hag concocted for his. clientele are merely elementary compared with, the real thing. “ Xhe Mask ” is a man who can be any one of at least half a dozen characters at will, and but for an accident—the purest chance—Colin would never have found him out. South American Adventure The bait which lures on the ceptral figures of “ Gentleman of Rio ” is no less than the long-lost or perhaps mythical mines from which the Inca kings were reputed to have drawn their supplies of -gold. Robert Sable, millionaire, sees in their discovery power of such magnitude as he had never before dreamed of, while de Regis, a nephew of the Brazilian President, in whose veins runs a strange mixture of Spanish, Argentinian, and old Indian blood, is determined that the gold, if it is ever found, shall never leave the country. A strong tussle of witp is enacted between these two, but it must be admitted that the handling of the climax falls considerably short of Captain Mills’s best efforts. “ The Long Fighter ” “Mournful,” Martin, the hero of this story, is quite a character. He has_come to be the special, factotum of old Henry Danforth, of the Three D ranch. Quite, unexpectedly a son of Danforth s, about whom nobody knew anything, turns up, and with the coming of Bob things begin to happen. “Mournful." cannot understand the position, but bit by bit he unravels the threads ,of a far-reaching conspiracy. Incidentally, he runs.into considerable danger, and only by his incomparable good nature and ready wit does lie manage to extricate himself. Crazy Cowboy The enthusiasm with which Jim Gilbert throws himself into a, ranchers quarrel justifies the belief that he is On® Crazy Cowboy,” though there is a satisfactory explanation in the end. However, Jim is well able to take care of himself, and he proves his ability to take care of Kirby, who is trying to get the Circle A ranch from Allard, as well. During this period he finds life strenuous and dangerous, but there is time for romance as well. v - V * L -