Its inherent weakness is bad writing, poor style. It confirms the opinion that he is a writer of acute perception. The story has vividness and power, an objective honesty and clarity. The one respect in which Mr. Stribling has not paid his full debt tot truth is his failure to show the kindliness and gentleness which is an inseparable part of the nature of these folk. Every character he brings before us is clearly outlined.
Every situation is the logical result of the one which has preceded it.
He writes with mastery, with a delicate wit, superimposed upon a fine feeling for what is pathetic and inevitable. Aware as he is of the tragic implications in the material he has selected, he has molded it all into an intensely absorbing novel. One is forced to admit that the shock of actuality one gets from the immediate reading of Stribling's pages is about the same as that deriving from a stenographic report in a newspaper of a trial. We are fascinated by the clues in Mr. Stribling's book of detective stories, for they are complicated, varied and wild, but we are even more fascinated by the Caribbees. He makes us share his sympathy with other countries and types of mind than the Anglo-Saxon as successfully as he did in Fombombo and Teeftallow .