FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26793, 9 June 1948, Page 2

FICTION

So Many Hungers. By Bhabani Bhattacharya. Gollancz. The Living Wood. By Louis de Wohl. Gollancz. 10s 6d. Peace Breaks Out. By Angela Thirkell. Hamish Hamilton. 12s 6d. The Cure. By William McElwee. Andrew Melrose. 9s 6d. Catherine's Circle. By Edith Arundel Macdonald. 9s 6d. Green Light. By Lloyd C. Douglas. Angus and Robertson. 10s. Famine in Bengal Return at Dusk. By Joseph Stamper. John Long. (Whitcombe and Tombs). 10s 6d. The food famine in Bengal in 1944 is the background for So Many Hungers, by Bhabani Bhattacharya, a novel which is remarkable for the vividness of its pictures of Indian life. In less skilful hands this might have been little more than a piece of propaganda; as it is, it is a genuinely moving story of human values told by an artist. Those who read this book will gain in understanding of India even though their interest is most consciously centred on the story of one Indian family. A Legend of the Cross The Living Wood is an unusual historical novel. Its period is Britain during the Roman occupation, and its theme is the life of the Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena, who discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem. Louis de Wohl, a Hungarian author, handles his material well and his canvas, though large, is not too highly coloured. Country Life In her latest story of English country life a setting in which her fluent pen finds its most ready form of expression, Mrs Thirkell deals with the impact of peace upon a County society which had become inured to the privations brought about by the war. The changed circumstances are naturally welcomed, but the fact that they are accompanied by a fresh crop of problems produces some unexpected reactions. There is a touch of anachronism in the rigidity with which the social distinction are preserved in this pres-ent-day book, Peace Breaks Out, the atmosphere is nevertheless a pleasant, carefree one. Love at Middle-age The complaint which sends Darcy Thompson, a businessman who is approaching middle age, to an isolated health resort in France seems to be little more than an attack of “ imaginitis,” but it has the effect of shaking him out of his little groove. The change of scene brings about something of a metamorphosis of character. He falls so deeply in love with a married woman several years his junior that he' is prepared to cast aside all his old beliefs in one grand gesture of defiance, and a fine air of expectancy is created as the story, The Cure moves to a climax which is by no means inevitable. . 1 Feet of Clay When Anna Latham is admitted to Catherine’s Circle, one feels that the emergence of the butterfly, from the unlovely chrysalis stage has been deservedly accomplished. Her formative years had possessed little of happiness, but the law of compensation has worked kindly, if belatedly. A romance which could have been happier if it had been subjected to less introspection falls to her lot, but it is easy to sympathise with the inhibitions which restrict her enjoyment of it. It is less easy, however, to follow the reasoning by which the author allows Anna to forfeit the esteem of the reader after so carefully nurturing it. Gospel of Self-help The fact that Green Light has reached its sixth Australian edition provides a gratifying commentary on the taste of the novel-reading public. Though it contains a pleasing romance, it derives its chief strength from the creation of Dean Harcourt, whose calm, unhurried philosophy contains something to comfort everyone who stumbles while traversing life’s bumpy highway. His theory is that, instead of our lives being governed by kismet or a kind of fatalism, which would reduce us to the status of automata, we march through our allotted span—in other words, that instead of being dragged through life we progress through it. The dean is no mere dispenser of salves. He believes that all people have it within themselves to overcome most of their difficulties, and if his unorthodox prescriptions show the way b\e is more than gratified. Tardy Awakening Lack of tolerance brings much unhappiness to Barbara Greyson in Return at Dusk. Brought up by an exasperatingly snobbish mother, Barbara’s mental faculties have lain so long dormant that when she reaches maturity her perspective is out of focus. A determination not to use her reasoning powers induces her to follow a course which contains little of common sense, and it takes tragedy in more than one form to awaken her to realisation of values.