BOOK OF THE WEEK

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOK OF THE WEEK

A REALLY FUNNY STORY

(By

C.E.)

"Leave It tq Susan,” by K. R. 0. Browne:. Cassell and Company, Ltd., London and Melbourne, through Thos. Avery and Sons, Ltd., New Plymouth. With the Christmas holidays near at hand and the slogan “Buy books this Christmas” prominent in many places, I need make no'excuse for offering this week to introduce my readers to a volume of just the right type'for holiday use. It may be, of course, that Mr. K. R. G. Browne requires no introduction to the perspicacious folk who keep an eye on this column, for in the past five or six years he must have made mapy friends. “Following Ann,” “A Knight and a Day,” and “Suburban Days’’ are three stories of his .that I expect a good many readers have chuckled over, and there are several others, whose titles I do not at the moment recall.

It cannot be suggested that there .is anything of a highbrow nature in Mr. 'Browne’s stories. He writps good English, has considerable descriptive power, •and works out a quite absurd plot'to. a reasonable conclusion, but his purpose 'is always and entirely to entertain and amuse, not to instruct. He. bubbles 'over with fun, so that one begins to chuckle at the first page and by the 'third or fourth'is" laughing heartily. And ft does most of ‘us. a world of good to enjoy a really hearty . laugh, especially •when it is prompted by a thoroughly ■wholesome story. '

There is a great’deal .in the way. a story begins, and Mr. Browne has quite 'the right idea of starting with a snap. 'Suppose I quote the opening-.lines of his first chapter, after remarking, by 'the'way, that he is bold enough to stick to . 'the did- style ’ chapters, each- with its heading. ■ There is something rather familiar and comforting in the practice. Well, this .is how “Leave it to Susan” begins: “The dog Hannibal first .entered the life df Mr. Nicholas Durham 'at five-forty-eight p.m. of a grey and 'oppressive day in early autumn. At the 'moment of their meeting Mr. Durham 'was seated on a dilapidated gate in the 'heart of Essex, perspiring .freely, _ talking peevishly to, himself and viewing 'the uninspiring landscape with a jaundiced eye. The gate was set in a hedge bordering a deeply-rutted and unlovely fane,-narrow as a'politician’s mind and ■tortuous as a woman’s reasoning; and lane young Mr. Durham, ac- ! 'companied by a- suitease which seemed 'to gain in weight .with his every step, had been trudging manfully fbr half 'an hour or more, somewhat to the detriment of his temper. While he rested 'on the gate therefore he lamented his lot—aloud, for it is inore comforting 'that way—in such appropriate words 'and phrases as occurred to him; and fie was so engaged, and beginning to feel a little better, when his eye was'caught by a sudden commotion in the hedge /on the far side of the lane. As he watched, the hedge yielded with a 'great crashing of twigs and ejected, into the road an animal that Mr. Durham ■at first. took to be a calf, but which 'on closer inspection he recognised as a 'dog. A big,, black and upstanding dog; 'quite the largest dog, in fact, that Mr. Durham had beheld in all his twenty'six‘ years of life. IHullo, Fidol’ said Mr. Durham, who liked dogs, ‘Woof!’ Replied the dog, in a voice like a mine‘explosion; and with no further remark ft turned away down the lane 'at a speed suggesting that it Was fitted •with a super-charger. ‘Good-bye,’ said (Mr. Durham. ‘Mind you don’t skid on. the —’ He paused, as again the opposite hedge became extremely agitated, and 'again was burst asunder, This time, (however, .there emerged no , dog, but a young lady.” . . There we have Susan Lavender and (Nick Durham, who obviously are to be the most important people in the story. The dog is also to introduce Admiral 'Sir Charles Quiffen (retired). Hannibal likes to set his own course, and it leads him into the admiral’s sitting-room, ■whither who has been promptly 'recruited for, the chase, follows him, 'Hannibal upsets a table covered with, 'snuff-boxes, of; which the admiral is’ a, ■proud collector, Nick proceeds to re-, thieve them, and the apoplectic admiral appears while, the young man is 'grovelling under the piano. Susan’s arrival relieves an awkward situation, but in his confusion Nick drops the best 'snuff-'box into his pocket, only to discover it much later, when he is a guest in the Lavender household.

, Mrs. Lavender, the widow of an explorer, is never startled by anything. (Even when an excited Frenchman arrives to beg hospitality for his English (niece and himself, his. car having broken down, she is .not a bit' perturbed, and ■when the niece stages a fainting fit/ Mrs.. Lavender merely insists on their staying the night. It is left to Nick 'and liis .friend Tommy Lavender to discover.'that the breakdown of, the ' car (has been “faked” and that' Af, Pepin — Uncle Pippin they prefer to call him—(has some sinister purpose in view. The snuff-box and Uncl Pippin’s plot 'afford opportunity for thrilling adventure, which leads the participants into (ludicrous situations. Nick and Susan, returning-from a swim in their bathing (suits and macintoshes, leap into an 'ancient car and proceed to chase the Frenchman across country. Mrs. Lav'ender is locked in the attic; the butler disappears'; altogether there is a complicated tangle, and every move to unravel it merely adds to the merriment. The plot, as 1 suggested earlier, is wedj 'constructed; Mr. Browne has the happi■est knack of fitting in the most trifling incidents as well as the bigger issues. There are subtle tquehes of humour that lend an air of distinction to the broad comedy. Take the description •of Susan: “As comely a damsel of the fair-haired, grey-eyed type as a man 'might encounter in a long month’s march. . . ' A dog that would flee from such a guardian, reflected Mr. ■Durham, must be far gone in misogyny.” When Susan suggests that Uncle Pippin and /his niece are “crooks,” Tommy, ■who of course is impressionable,. declares that she is simply, a catspaw. “I should say she’s . the whole cat,” 'Susan smartly rejoins'. “As for her intelligence, ’’she’s the sort of girl who thinks Norman Conquest is a film star.”

Snappy dialogue is a feature of the book, and the author is wonderfully apt to place his characters in the most absurd situations. The scene in which the admiral slips into a room, locks the door and drops the key, and then finds himself alone with the lady into whose room he has dashed is a story in itself. Mr. Browne apparently cannot help being funny. His book —any of. his books, in fact—will make a charming holiday companion.