NOVEL OF NOVA SCOTIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25214, 1 May 1943, Page 3

NOVEL OF NOVA SCOTIA

Barometer Rising. By Hugh MacLennan (Harrap) 9s, 6d.

In December. 1917, a French munitions ship leaving the harbour of Halifax. capital of Nova Scotia, collided with a Belgian relief steamer. The French ship was carrying 500,0001 b of T.N.T. and 23001 b of picric acid when she was struck, and the resultant explosion devastated one-tenth of the city. This disaster forms the basis of the story in Barometer Rising, by Hugh MacLennan, and it is used to solve many of the problems confronting Neil Mcßae in attempting to clear his name of a charge of cowardice in France. The descriptions of the disaster ■ are magnificently done, but they are only in keeping with the general high literary' standard revealed by this writer. A Nova Scotian himself, he knows the people and their lives, and he “is able to write with confidence and ease of a little-known colony. In the days of the Great War Halifax was one of the most important links in the Atlantic shipping lifeline, and the atmosphere of feverish activity which pervaded the shipping quarters is skilfully recaptured. Apart from the dramatic historical highlights, the story of Neil Mcßae, Penelope Wain, Major Angus Murray, and Colonel Geoffrey Wain is unusually good and developed on sound psychological lines. A. A. A.