LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3397, 23 April 1919, Page 52

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES

"The Great Hunger." By Johan Bojer. Translated from the Norwegian by W. J. Alexander. Worster and O. Archer, London, New York, etc. (65. ) What is the Great Hunger from which, according to the famous Norwegian author, all men suffer. Is it the desire for food, for adventure, for knowledge, for success, for fame, for love? Not so. According to Johan Bojer, it is something stronger, deeper, more enduring than any or all of these; for these, each in its turn, assail his hero, and each in its turn is met, satisfied, and overcome. But the hunger remains. It is no less a thing than man's eternal need of a God. Long ago some wise man said that if there were no God man would need to create one. That is, in short, the position to which Peer Holm, the hero of this novel, is driven by the persistent, pursuing, devouring hunger of his spiritual nature. Born into. a low estate, a child without a name or recognised parentage, Peer experiences all the different kinds of hunger already referred to and many others. He knows what it is to experience actual semi-starvation, to go to bed hungry and wake in even worse condition; to live in the most wretched surroundings—in the cubby-hole of a fishing smack or a loft above a stable; struggling for a knowledge in an engineering shop; gradually working his way up to school and college, through every difficulty, to the highest grades of his profession till he finds a place at the famous dam of Assouan; and then returning to his native land to find love, a devoted wife, bonnie children, a beautiful home, a warm welcome. All the adventures a man could desire, from the day when as a small boy, leader of other young scamps, he goes fishing with the men's stolen gear and catches and kills the big shark, to the moment when he meets a young girl with wonderful eyes and a heart of gold, who has been waiting for him on a fiord island—all are his. And then there comes a change. For a while he is content, and then he wearies of his prosperity. Fame calls him, friends urge him. He is too young to give up work. There is so much to do, and the great, restless hunger, never satisfied, never stilled, snatches him away from all the good things earned by a long life of labour and continual success. So he goes back to the world of steel, of struggle and adventure, and now his good luck has deserted him. The elements themselves appear to fight against him; accidents of all kinds befall his works and his men—flood and frost, sliding rock, and a thousand other difficulties. He loses time on his contract and undergoes heavy forfeiture. Every effort to retrieve matters makes things worse. He brings ruin on himself and on his father-in-law. He sinks lower and lower, and breaks down in health, so that he has to go and live in a country cottage, such as sheltered him in his earliest days. But still he is unconquered, indomitable, unbeaten, and, like Henley, gives thanks for his " unconquerable soul." And still the " Great Hunger" pursues him, and he cannot tell whence or why it comes or how he may satisfy it. But he understood at last: How blind fate can strip and plunder us of all, and yet something will remain in us at the last that nothing in heaven or hell can vanquish. Our bodies are doomed to die, yet still we bear within us the spark, the germ of an eternity of harmony and" light, both for the world and for God. And I knew what I had hungered after all my best years was neither knowledge nor honour nor riches; not to be a great creator in steel, but to build temples, not chapels for prayers or churches for

wailing, penitent sinners, but a temple for the human spirit in its grandeur where we could lift up our souls in an anthem as a gift to heaven. . . . So I went out, and sowed corn in my enemy's field, that God might exist.

"The Ivory Cross." By Forester Claire. London: Robert Scott. (Cloth, 3s 6d.)

"The Ivory Cross " is a pleasant story of Gippsland life, emphasising the social side of colonial existence, and showing how it is possible for people to be at once good farmers and refined, educated gentlemen, and for their wives and daughters to perform many generally considered menial tasks without losing their claim to be considered ladies in the true sense of that much-abused term. All this comes out during a visit paid by Justice Harwood and his daughter and son, Hilda and Hugh, to the farm of Mrs Rothsay, her son Robert, and her three daughters. Justice Harwood is an old friend of the family, but he has not visited the farm for many years—not since the death of Mr Rothsay. All the young people are now grown up, and he is anxious that they should meet; but Hilda and Hugh are not anxious. They expect to find nothing but "common" people and rough, bucolic surroundings. Their disillusion begins at the station, where Robert meets them with a fine turnout, and continues steadily during the whole visit, until they are fain to confess that the despised country folk are not behind the town in true culture and refinement, while taking precedence in those useful activities which develop the muscles and strengthen and beautify the physicalframe. In addition to this ethical teaching, the author takes advantage of the Harwood's visit to. personally conduct her readers to some of the famous beauty spots of Gippsland, and engage their interest and admiration in the same. The love interest is well sustained, Robert and Hilda and Hugh and the eldest Miss Rothsay being mutually attracted, to the satisfaction of both families. "The Ivory Cross " bears a small but important part in the clearing up of some of those misunderstandings without which the course of true love would be apt to run too smoothly.

' Salvage i Pictures and Impression of the Western Front." By Sergeant T. Penleigh Boyd, A.I.F. With foreword by Brigadier-general" T. *H. Dodds, C.M.G., D. 5.0., A.I.F. " British-Australasian." (Paper, 23 6d.) „ ; ,

These clever sketches with their accompanying explanative letterpress are the work of an Australian electrical and mechanical engineer during his trench experiences, and may be described as hot from the battle front. They present many scenes of interest, such as " The 'Despatch Rider," " Church Ruins at Ypres," "Ramparts, at Ypres," "The Farm Billet," "The Forward Dump," "Masks in a Gas Alarm," "Supper Time," " The Communication Trench," "Types," "A Road in France," etc. This publication will form an acceptable souvenir to many, while giving to the soldiers themselves an opportunity of reviewing the scenes in which they so nobly played their part, and did "their bit.

"Sally: The Tale of a Currency Lass." By J. M. M. Abbott. Sydney: New ' South Wales Bookstall Co. (Is.) The latest addition to this well-known series is worthy of high commendation. It is a tale of New South Wales in the early days of the last century, faithfully reproducing _ a state of things which is already ancient history, and possesses the attraction of the unknown. It commences with the great flood of the Hawkesbury of 1806, and gives a most realistic picture of the life of the colony at that time, contrasting Sydney and its environs with their present conditions in a manner that will prove most instructive to residents and visitors of to-day. The heroine makes her entry on the great flood waters, which deposit her and her dead mother at the feet of her future foster-parents. Her life is full of adventure, and not too improbable.