A NOVEL WITHOUT TEARS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22392, 13 October 1934, Page 4

A NOVEL WITHOUT TEARS

MR MULGAN'S "SPUR OF MORNING"

"Spur of Morning." By Alan Mulgau. London: Bent. (75.)

Mr Alaii Mulgan has selected the ingredients for his novel " Spur of Morning" -with perspicacity. New Zealanders arc interested in football and politics, and'in his story of Mark Bryan the author gives us full measure from the touchline and the lobby. The seeker for perversities and by-ways and psychological nuances will'be disappointed in "Spur of Morning," but to the many who like to follow a straight-out story this novel will be a source of genuine satisfaction. The love story runs ■to its end with just sufficient let and'hindrance to keep the unsophisticated reader in suspense. Mark Bryan is. introduced to us in the'role of a rebel. He will .not join in the cheers for which the formmaster callg on the occasion of a victory by the British over the Boers. Marks red head in.the face of a Mafeking crowd would have been bloody but unbowed.

His career, as Mr Mulgan traces it, is punctuated by acts of solitary courage in the manner of Mr Kipling's " If." He talks with crowds and keeps his virtue. Moreover he plays wing-threequarter for Eden Universitv First, and he Roes iuto Parliament. Mr Mulgan, by the way, has not been fortunate in his choice of a nom-de-theatre for Auckland. When we read that Mark has been elected for Eden Central we recall that there is an electorate of Eden in the actual world outside " Spur of Morning." There are, however, many pleasirig and, no doubt, authentic vistas of Auckland, such as one would expect from Mr Mul'-'nn. He has managed to distill in the pages of this story something of the sunshine of the northern town. He has also made good use of his experience as a journalist. We have here something more than a tale. We have a document. Read by the AngloNew Zealander, it will induce a nostalgia for the country that Mr Mulgan loves with such tutored discernment. There is one excursion into the realms of " Home " when Sylvia Feldon, who shares Mark's love story, is vouchsafed a trip to England. It would be difficult for Mr Mulgan to. write anything without giving voice to tk&t strong Imperial bias of his. " Spur of Morning " is a good story, and it should enjoy a wide popularity. We know that Mark Bryan will score, not only tries, but moral victories all along the line. If Mr Mulgan has done nothing comparable to the creation of a John Ridd, an Anyas Lee, or a Pendennis, in uis presentation of Mark Bryan, he has at least given us a story that abounds in evidences of his keen observation. There are pictures of station and town life which one would expect from the author of " Golden Wedding." " Spur of i Morning " may be confidently recommended to anyone in search of a leisurely conte, untroubled by obstinate questionings and entirely free from that girding note which is present in so much fictional writing in this Dominion. It is lit throughout by a' tolerant humour, and is enlivened by many incidental narratives which are obviously the outcome of Mr Miilgan's experiences as a seeker after " copy.*' "Spur of Morning" will also have a distinct value in the eyes of those.who like to follow political and sociological trends. One would hardly say that it presents in the form of a story what William Pember Reeves presents in the form of an historical study, but it is indubitable that Mr Mulgan here presents us with a kind of . precipitate of many tutelary years. C. R. A.