Arizona republican., 1919-03-02
THE DESERT OF WhEAT,r b

THE DESERT OF WHEAT" by Zane Grey (Harper), was a much an- ticipated story; it is to me a very dis appointing one. Robert W. Chambers is reported 10 have recently said that there were thousands of authors and but few writers. Almost immediately Ted Robinson, the philosopher of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, retorted to the effect that Chambers was one of the thousands" May 1 be pardoned for going an inch or two further and in cluding Zane Grey in the Chambers class? I should qualify this, for Zane Grey has written better stories in better style than "The Desert of Wheat" l have no quarrel, so far as composition is concerned, with those who admire Greys writings. So far as it goes, it is mi-satisfying. But the story!
 Gordon Ray Young literary editor of the Los Angeles Times, writing of The Desert of Wheat" unwittingly discloses the frailty of the story skele- ton of this book when he says that Kurt Dorn, the Heading man." falls in love with Lenore Anderson, the ''hero- inc on the fourth page of the volume That's just it. No foundation laid for any of the climaXes, of which there are not a few; no leading up to the denouement, which is hard to discover; no reason to kill off Jim, unless to rob him of his fathers property and give Grey a chance to introduce a little ''sob stuff"
 Why Grey ever attempted to delve into l. w. w. troubles to find material for a novel is difficult to understand; Hrr haf ha should later forgive them, make up with them," and all that rot is nau- seating to read in the light of today's developments. The best thing about this book is the name of the publisher. The story can scarcely sell on it's merits, but it will sell, no doubt, be- cause it is published by Harper & Brothers.
 It would be an interminable task to begin, systematically. picking flaws in this book. A characteristic one, how ever is found in the title. So ridicu- lously paradoXical is it that it lcSes it's entire value. The Desert of Wheat" You need stop but a moment to see the joke. The charm of the desert is completely lost in the wheat, and the value of the wheat utterly de- ! stroyed by the suggestion of the desert. | You may say that the destruction of 1 the wheat by the l. w. w. made of the ] wheat fields a desert; but we are not ] informed in the story of any wheat | field that is so destroyed, unless, per ! chance, we include fields of wheat that were more valuable destroyed than l harvested.
 The love interest is far fetched strained, unnatural, impossible. The characters are less vividly drawn than the rolling hills. I am sure that We care little for heroes that always win never fail. and leave a "hare and hound trail' so well marked that we can follow it with our eyes closed There is a total lack of surprises, 6 lack of lifelilSe people, a woeful lack ol stimulating interest, and little or nc q similarity to the Zane Grey virility that gripped us in The l.. P. Trail and Riders of the Purple Sage"
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 "KARMA.' Who. by takin- thought can add a cubit to the stature of I.af- cadio Hearn? You who have reat Hearn sufficiently to absorb thai lotus spirit that permeates so many of his Japanese writings, just like tn, fragrance of a magnolia blossom fill, the chamber into the open window O. which the bough has grown, will lay down this short story of "Karma' only when you have turned the las page. Of diction, of composition. O words that gurgle along like a soft flowing stream-Lafcadio is the com mander-in- chief.
 But this tale. assured to us to be tho narrative of his courtship with hi Japanese wife. is weird and pretty tragic and unusual, hypnotizing ant revealing.
 She said: Write out for me a short history of your life; writ down everything you would not lill to have me know" Then she said: " shall tell you whether I will marr, you"
 Can you not, then-those of you wh know Hearn-follow the mental pro cesses of this poet wild with love Should he make his autobiography work of literary merit; q series of con venient confessions; a camouflage( ( exploitation of himself: or-impossi blel-a veritable succession of tn horrible, reprehensible events that he even. hated to remember? If you knoy Hearn, you know that he told tn truth; that his confession included a almost unforgivable offense against
 husband; that he had never made a effort to atone for it. And you wi discover that the little Japanese wom an burned that autobiography, afte reading it; asked him if he had eve atoned for the certain wrong; was tol that he had not; and sadly informe him that she could not marry him unt he had made of himself an utter sacri flee in behalf of those whom he ha aggrieved. This, mind you, in spite c the fact that the husband knew noth ing whatever of the wrong.
 So Hearn took the child, which wa his own; made much of it: loved il > did his full duty 10 it; recompense ! the supposed father in many ways a and merely asked. after many year n CfYYJ