RECENT FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23108, 6 February 1937, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

"City for Conquest." By Aben Kandel (Joseph). 10s fid. „■';■. . . "Laughing Gas." By P. G. Wodehouse (Jenkins). .„,,,„ "August Folly." By Angela Thirkell (Hamilton). • "High Wall." By Alan R. Clark (Joseph). " ' "Fragile Armour." By Diana Patrick (Hutchinson). ' , , «, " Waking Dream." _By Marjorie Moore (Mills and Boon). • "Challenge to Happiness." By Maysie Greig (Hodder and Stoughton). (Each 7s 6d, unless otherwise stated.) New York Parade It must depend to some extent on one's interest in New York whether one finds Aben Kandel's "City for Conquest" as exciting from cover to cover as it must be if it is to "get across." The dust-cover is worth studying by those who are in doubt about purchasing the book, for it. as all there in a kaleidoscopic impression of skyscrapers, tenements, drab parks, dancing girls, pugilists, men-about-town, and down-and-outs. What Mr Kandel has done is to reproduce' this stirring, noisy panorama into word pictures, vivid, sometimes crude, with an impetuosity that is unimpeded by nice considerations of style or even syntax. The book covers 20 years in the growth of the vigorous city, and a handlul oi its inhabitants. In that time we see some fail and others prosper and we see the pace of life becoming iaster and faster, but less directed. Mr Kandel feels New York fiercely, perhaps he loves it, but he is unsentimental about it, and has no moralising to do. " City, for Conquest is a stirring book, with much more oi the undeflnable quality of inspiration in it than will be encountered in 19 novels out of 20. It has many faults, almost too obvious to be worthy detailing, and it is for'the reader to decide whether its dynamic energy compensates for these.. Most who are prepared to accept their entertainment •with a strong flavour will decide that it does. "Laughing Gas"

Reginald, third Earl of Havershot, and Joey Cooley, Hollywood's famous child star, are the two new characters created by the irrepressible P. G. Wodehouse in his latest work. The greater, part of the story has been set against the background.of the capital city of the motion picture industry/ and the various personalities connected with this breezy and amusing tale are •typical of the best Wodehouse characters. When Joey . Cooley and the Earl of Havershot meet in Messrs Burwash and ZizzbauhVs community waiting, room, pftor to having a tooth apiece extracted with the assistance of gas, both become communicative and sufflaiently interested in leach other to exchange their personal views on everyday life in general. The 'summons to the respective chairs m adjoining rooms is received at the same time, and while the patients are under the influence of the gass tne souls of both ■ are liberated and. as the author says, '.! dirty work at the Fourth Dimension , results in Joey Cooley's soul entering the Person of the Earl of Havershot and the soul of the latter blundering its way into the body of Joey Copley From this stage the author carries his readers on a continuous laughing journey, which is beset with hilarious and particularly entertaining situations. The romantic side of the story hasi been treated « in a novel manner, and until the closing stages readers will be far doubt as to whether April June (the big film star), or Ann Bannister (nursemaid to Joey ■ Cooley) will win the affection of'the?Earl. ;•;.,

The' ; Author: Pelham» G-reiiiville Wodehouse was' 1 born' at C'Uildford in 1881, and educated at - Dulwich College. At the wish of relations he engaged in banking in London, but When his employers intimated to; him their doubt that he would be a success in commerce he: was already prospering with his pen. After ■ ' a periodv of free-lance work he joined the/Globe, of London, as columnist, and commenced a luc- ■ rative career as author-play- . "wright. In 1910 he published the first of Ms "Fsmith" books, and in the same year he retired from active newspaper work to devote his time to authorship. , He has written at least thirty >nbvels and twenty-five musical ''■comedies, most of the latter being produced hi the United States, where he has spent considerable time. He is married and has a daughter. His recreations include motoring and golf, and he is described as of a genial but retiring disposition.

By Angela Thirkell Mrs Thirkell laughs at her characters, but she also manages to laugh with them. Here, we feel, is a woman with more intelligence and discernment than the local gentry of the village of Worsted, who may be impatient of them, yet can assess their qualities when they are superior,to her own, as well as where they degenerate into pettiness and small-mindedness. "August Folly" is as good a book as could be commended to those who embrace the Panglossian concept that all is really for the best in ,the best of possible worlds; yet at the same time, it recognises folly and rebukes it. One of the principal themes in the tale is the production of the " Hippolytus" by the amateur actors of Worsted; another is the regeneration of a boorish young Oxford graduate when he comes face to face with an angry bull. Another is the quiet sanity of Fanshawe, whose wise eyes reduce the most extraordinary of trivial events—all events In Worsted are trivial—to compassable size. One has always a feeling, with Mrs Thirkell's novels, that she should be doing something more important than making her telling water-colours of life's little ironies; and then one questions whether any novelist could be better employed than putting on paper a province, however small, that is so much her own.

Asylum Drama "High Wall," by Alan R, .Clark, is commended to its readers on its scarlet cover as "a most unusual novel." The description is entirely appropriate. There is nothing that is ordinary about it and little that is pleasant, but it is full of information of a kind that #r may not be of interest or value to the ordinary run of reader. There should be no lack of material in the guarded walls o:l! a mental hospital, and when the institution is the TriState Asylum, serving three American States, and introducing American methods, speech, and frankness, it is impossible to complain of a confined or restricted canvas. The lay mind will, have no means of judging the trustworthiness of the technical and medical views and conclusions, but actually such things mean very little in the story; they take on the impoJ.-ta.nce of stage props only, in a background against which a startlingly dramatic tragedy is played out. David Stephens, the principal character, is discovered at the outset just struggling out from behind the dark mists of amnesia, and the portrait drawn of him is pathetically real. His curaous existence, considered in relation to the lives and habits of his fellow-inmates of Corridor E, should prepare the reader for almost anything. But not even the author's skilful leading up to his climax, nor the pains he Is at to show the possibilities of Davids complaint, can diminish the effect of the story's grim denouement. High Wall" is a book that will be read with more fascination than actual enjoyment. '

Love in the Dalesi When Jasmine Courthope's father enters into a second marriage with a widow whom he has met on a pleasure cruise—the widow's cruise, Jasmine calls it—she and her brother Rex de-

cide to accept an appointment as tutor and governess to two children living in a remote part of Yorkshire. At the eleventh hour Rex fails his sister, and Jasmine, glad to eseape from a butterfly existence, sets out alone, " girt with the fragile armour of vouth." On the journey northwards she meets Adrian Shahahan, who readily adopts the role of the faithless Rex. Together they fulfil the engagement with the de Lanciers in their rather mysterious menage at Darkpool Manor, and in the romantic atmosphere of the Yorkshire dales friendship soon ripens into love., Over the closing stages difficulties appear, only to be overcome with a facility that would vastly ameliorate many of the situations encountered in everyday life. Bright dialogue and picturesque glimpses of a countryside beloved by Diana Patrick are features of a pleas&ntly readable story. Romance in the Fog

Marjorie Moore's fifth novel deals, as do so many of the type beloved by women readers who besiege the lending library barrier, with a triangular situation. The woman in " Waking Dream," Anne Fenlake, imagines herself in love*with Wilbur Crediton when she encounters that distinguished actor, Luke Andorley,- in the fog around Piccadilly Circus. It takes Anne a considerable number of pages of the book, and marriage with Wilbur, to make her realise at last that she has made the wrong choice. The tale has another thread irt Anne's corcern over the romantic difficulties Qf a beloved brother. And everything comes out all right in the end. Poetic Justice

In Maysie Greig's new romance the characters are out of the same mould, though perhaps they move more humanly in their superficial* atmosphere. Here again the stage plays its part, first in the precarious struggle for success of the playwright, Michael, and secondly, in the efforts to assist him of Sara Alton, who adores him. Michael's celebrity proves, in the end, to be of a less stable quality than that achieved by the self-sacrificing Sara, and this fact provides the poetic justice in a readable novel. Miss Greig handles her rather tawdry materials with an enthusiasm and conviction that must convince the reader of her sincerity when she declares (on the dust cover) that the words " love " and "happiness" are synonymous. __ _ V. V. L.