REVIEWS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 291, 7 December 1929, Page 18 (Supplement)

REVIEWS

i “PAYMENT IN FULL,” by Elizabeth Carfrae, (Mills and Boon). —The (author has chosen a theme, which, while it affords the basis for an entertaining, and at times, appealing story, may not conic within the definition of being true to life in the broad sense. Strictly speaking it is based on sex appeal, the author taking pains to prove that a woman must truly love her husband to bear him children. Elizabeth Alloway was a pathetic figure in the midst of sorrowing friends when her father died and there was always the memory of a broken love with Christopher Mallory to add to her bitterness. Young Christopher loved her truly, but an arrogant father and an equally ambitious mother had other plans for the pride of their hearts. They had a cruel way of making the boy realise their outlook. He bowed to his parents’ will and left Elizabeth alone simply because her mother had had a past and his parents’ weapon of compulsion was that they would tell the world. Was it to be wondered at that the girl should iean on good, faithful, steady George i Hutton and, in the end, make with him the marriage vow. But she did not love him and her listlessness and the failure of three children to live longer than an hour or so had the medical mind in a whirl. How she was sent abroad without her husband, to “have her fling” as the cynical old medico who ordered so put it, how she met Christopher, listened to his explanations and understood, how they spent one hectic fortnight before her retufti home —all these blend to form an entertaining story. The birth of a daughter, the mother’s renewed life and the ultimate dawning of happiness after a sequence of events during which the new arrival grows to womanhood, “has her fling” with her own father whom she doesn’t know as such —these call for bold treatment lest the the story should savour of the bizarre. Au impossible tale really, but well worth the reading. D.G.S.

“AUTUMN’S WOOING,’’ by Sophie Cole (Mills and Boon).—We are told by the publishers that this story is one of those carefully selected by themselves as of outstanding merit, and in our opinion this is true. ‘ 1 Punch ’ ’has summed up the story contained in “Autumn’s Wooing” in these words, which most acurately fit the case. “Miss Sophie Cole has" made a corner in the writing of London novels, not. of tho sensational, night-life-of-a-great-city type, but stories of the humble, and on the whole, kindly and lawabiding folk of the poorer suburbs. So natural are the events that her tales should appeal to every reader who docs not insist on battle, murder and divorce as essential to the best, romance.’’ This is high praise coming from such a source, but Miss Cole well deserves it. Her writing is clear and lucid, her characters are human, her ideals arc high and she has a gift of real humour. Without sanctimonious words she makes one feel the influence of good men and women, and she finds in all some trace of good and the possibility of better. A novel of London life in the part depicted by Miss Cole must of necessity be one in "which the colours are quiet. The West End may be brilliantly painted, but Spitalficlds docs not in general lend itself to any colours but browns and greys, perhaps an occasional bright streak, which only serves to accentuate the unspeakable weariness and monotony of the scene. Still further, there is o straing after effect; one scene follows another as naturally as wave succeeds wave. There arc no unpleasant complications and the book is one which is sure to have a wide success with those who like a sane and interesting type of fiction. | Julia Tarrant is fifty, unmarried and likely to remain so. Richard Somber, medical practitioner, scholar, war-worn and lonely, is verger of St. Bridget’s church, Weaver’s Square. The story of “Autumn’s Wooing’’ centres round these two and their romance. Apart from them, yet interwoven, is the love story of Kenneth Paul and Terence Fortune The characters of the middleaged Julia and Richard are very charmingly drawn; they are ooth of an essentially practical mystic type. He, full of good works amongst the poor of those awful slums which social workers in London know only too well—she, one of the best of England’s womanhood, possessing a sturdy self-reliance and an ability t 0 meet situations however unpleasant when such arise.

Mabel, the pessimistic cockney servant is priceless; it would, in fact, be difficult to find a better delineation of such a household retainer. It. is in her sympathetic intimate knowledge of London cast and west, that Miss Cole excels. The average tourist, who “does” London in a week, knows nothing save the chief sights, many of which are of very second-rate importance. A Chicagoan recently w’rote “Three weeks in the British Isles,” in which he made howlers on the elementary facts of London which would move one almost to tears —of laughter. The real London is hidden away from such vulgar gaze. It is to be found in alleys and byways —in the old churches and old buildings surrounding them. Above all it is to be discovered in the lives and homes of those ‘who live and die within the sound of Bow Bells.

Such folk are depicted with much skill and insight in this book. Terence’s alcoholic parent Sally in her hour of need, the street accident, the daily round of poverty borne with the cheerful stoicism which is met so universally in the East End of London. There is not a great deal that one can say by way of a resume of the story. It flows on quietly and naturally, joy and sorrow, hope and fear blended. The characters living natural, sane fwid normal lives, in most cases, and the scheme of events coming to its equally normal ending. It is refreshing to find a novel of this kind and we congratulate both publisher and author on their faith in the reading public. ISAAC OF YORK.

“MAGIC FOR MARIGOLD,”— The author of “Magic for Marigold” (Cornstalk Publishing Co.), Miss L. M. Montgomery must have a deep understanding of children and an appreciation of poetry. For these two things are the basis of the book. The understanding of children is best explained by a trivial incident telling of the main character, Marigold Leslie, at the age of six. “Marigold got into bed, having carefully placed her two shoes close together under the bed so that they wouldn’t be lonesome. She did that every night. She couldn’t

have slept a wink if those shoes had been far apart missing each other all night.” Surely that is true of most children, the make-believe of giving inanimate objects emotions. Th e whole book shows that same knowledge of the child mind and i s really only of the life of Marigold Lesley until she reaches the ago of eleven. She has many relatives and lives in an absolute “clan” atmosphere. Uncles and aunts arc dotted about the countryside for miles and make up a clan bouud together by all kind s of traditions, conventions and r gular reunions. The scenes for the book are laid in Canada, where the Lesleys, pioneers from Scotland, had settled four generations before.

There is no plot in th c book, and little to hold the the writing itself and one or two rather clever character studies. There is poetry of beauty in the descriptions. If you are of a solidly practical outlook, this book will not appeal to you, and even if you are not, it still may not appeal.

It is not a child’s book and yet not an adult’s book; perhaps it is a feminine book. —I.P.F.