BOOK OF THE WEEK

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

BOOK OF THE WEEK

VERY LIGHT READING

(By

C.E.)

"War Birds and Lady Birds,” by Efliott White Springs: John Hamilton, Ltd., London, through Thos. Avery and Sons, Ltd., New Plymouth. Captain Elliott White Springs finds it necessary to apologise for g iv ’”° book a long introduction, and it cer tainly 'is long, exceeding 60 pages. How evejhe puts’up a good excuse when he says he wanted to tell his readers some thing about Carol Banks before nin» to quote him, for “from then on does allele talking.” Further apology being obviously unnecessary, I do not nronose to give elaborate reasons for ?i: P tatX B tlon of Carol Bank. ■» » this column. It is, of course, my prac tice to seek for the purposes of this • weekly article books which have literary qualities to commend them, and I suspect that many people will be ready to tell me that “War Birds and Lady Birds” is quite without literary virtue. I shall not quarrel with them; I prefer to say that this is a holiday season, and at such a time a little very light reading, if not edifying, is, at any rate, not particularly harmful. The book offers very pleasant entertainment. It is concerned mainly with post-war stories of an American aviator who . was trained in England and did some months .of strenuous fighting against the German air forces. That is the reason for the long introduction—an account of Carol Banks as a verycapable flying man, the best cocktail shaker in the army, and apparently the most ■superlatively impressionable of all the young officers who lost their hearts at every possible opportunity. It was Captain Springs who edited “War Birds,” that very remarkable diary of a young aviator, and he was himself one of the most vivid characters in that story. “War Birds” and the novels he has since written have revealed Captain Springs not only as an authority on flying and a daring aviator hut also as an equally daring and dashing writer. As a war historian he would not be a great success; he would be too apt to stress the very points the true historian would overlook. As a teller of tall stories, however, he must take high rank, and he has told none taller than those in which, he outlines Carol Banks’ luxurious yet anything but carefree life as an American citizen. His method is simply to tell a number of yarns, almost disconnected, and through them to convey a picture of the young man who after running the gauntlet of many love affairs undertakes 'the responsibilities of a wife and an establishment of his own. The art—if it is an art—upon which the author depends for the success his book is sure to have—the copy before me represents the third printing in two months—is that of exaggeration, and very gross exaggeration at that. The drinking done by Carol and his friends is grossly exaggerated; the few. war reminiscences are at least very highly coloured; the stories of Carol’s encounters with fair ladies are utterly absurd, and he and his associates say the most ridiculous things. Yet, as Captain Springs might say himself, lie manages ■to “get away with it.” He possesses a subtle skill which enables him to “put it across” his readers so pleasantly that they- have to enjoy the fun just as much as he does.' He fools his audience in such a way that everyone is glad to be fooled. Captain Springs is, as I have said, daring. ' His outlook is thoroughly mod-ern;-°he glorifies the freedom enjoyed by young women and young men, and he pictures his flying men as happy-go-lu6ky youngsters seeking all their ■recreation in cocktails and flirtation. Rut it is very much to his credit that he avoids the "two devices by which certain writers have tried to • make their war books sensational. He does not ■make his people use obscene language, and he does not stage bedroom scenes. His characters speak pretty bluntly at times, but their candour is not of the revolting kind which some of hi& contemporaries have affected. Frankness and even breeziness are there in plenty, but the author always draws the line discreetly. By way. of commending his book to those who are ready to accept it as a means of relaxation let me mention one of the stories. Carol receives word that an old comrade, Mart Raft, is coming up from Ohio on his way to Paris. Mart had spent a year on his back after the war, and Carol had not seen nim since. It turned out that he had always felt he had been cheated out of the Armistice celebrations in Paris, and now, having made his pile, he had decided to go across and have a celebration of his own, to be “drank and disorderly in four languages.” Carol and his wife plan to entertain Mark during the few days he is with them and pair him off with Jane, a girl who “has been debarred from polo 'for rough play, won the club tennis championship and was runner-up in the state golf championship.” 1 Jane appears at dinner in “full regimentals”: there was “more of her out of her dress than in it,” and proceeds to convince Mark that Paris. is not the only place where a celebration is possible. The rest of the story would take too long to tell, but it has a sentimental aspect, and Mark is quite content to cancel his Atlantic passage and go back to Ohio. A -good war story concerns the secret service. Carol captures a German ace, and the colonel and Carol take him to Paris. It is Carol’s job to ply the prisoner with liquor in the hope that he will reveal secrets, and in Paris a couple of women spies make friends with them. Carol wakes in the morning to find that the prisoner and the beautiful blonde spy have taken the colonel’s car and probably are back in Germany. He is very wrathful at the thought that the woman has “double crossed” her French employers, but the colonel is less perturbed. It is not until some time afterwards that Carol learns the truth of the story. The woman has been bold enough to adopt the only way of getting within the German lines, she has obtained the information she wants, and the result is that the German flying force is surprised. on a big raid and suffers heavy loss, Carol’s former prisoner being among the casualties. That yarn gives the author an opportunity to tell a thrilling story of an aerial battle, and he makes a fine job of it.

Children's Annuals for the current season are now considerably reduced. Take advantage of the following favourable prices: Chums, 16s 6d, now 12s; Blackie’s Children’s Annual, Blackie’s Annual for Boys, New Zealand Annuals for Boys and for Girls, 7s, now offered for 5/-; Oxford Annual for Boys, 6s 6d, now ss; Empire Annual for Girls, Bs,6d, now 6s; last year’s Chums, now 10s 6d. The above are a few of the bargains in juvenile literature now offered by Thomas Avery and Sons, Ltd., .Booksellers, New Plymouth.* /