Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-23


of Under Fire." etc. Translated
by Fitzwater Wray. New York:
E. p. Dutton & Co.
"HIS book is mostly darkness.
Better, it is that twilight zone
in which people grope-unled,
untaught-up to the last mo-
ment of life. In real life the light"
breaks too late for the correction of
mistaken ways, for the establishment
of missed relationships. But in M.
Barbusses novel, this light, which is
truth, comes in time to end the story
with the full promise of an all-around
rehabilitation. One suspects the eff
ficacy Of this late daybreak. either in
its application to the future of the
man whose story is told here in such
convincing. realism, or to the future
Of the world so lately brought out OF
the darkness of its colossal failure.
Individual and world alike are, after
all, in the grip of their own past,
their direction set, their future no mi
selves. But, despite this final strain
to ones acceptance Of the outcome,
this is a remarkable piece of fiction.
AS matter of fact, it is not fiction at
all. Rather is it one Of those fiawless
mirrors that the French writer is able
to set in front Of the individual and
secret life of a man, 30 that he may
see himself whole, an astonishing and
a terrifying complex Of contradictions,
disproportions, hypocrisies, utilities
for none Of which is he much to be
blamed. The light. you see. breaks
too late. the big pattern is OWNED too
tardily to be of use. This is gray
Lott in I'D IT ~
the dull round of everyday life. "All
the days of the week are alike, from
their beginning to their end"-that is
the opening sentence. 1t rises to its
climax by way of the war and women.
The war chapters are vivid with war
realism, just as the others are trans
scriptive with the daily small doings
of peace time. The loves of this young
man are many. And here, too. there
is no skimping of the facts-of those
inside facts of emotionalism wherein
the treasure of unknown women turns
men into compact tissue of untruth.
A franker study of man. an honester
avowal, a more austere example of
analytical and artistic integrity than
this novel presents will be hard to
find in current literature.
THE BLACK DROP. BY Alice Brown.
author of 1.-THE Prisoner" etc.
New York: The Macmillan Com
pany.
This is the story of the black sheep.
The rest Of the flock runs true to
form-white inside and out. Alice
Brown projects a family here-three
generations Of intelligent, cultured,
upright people-not too good to be
true, not so correct as to be unbeara-
BILE. Within the family she sets the
one member who has brought forward
from God knows what remote past,
the "black DROP the yellow streak.
The war is in it's beginnings. The
ging the whole American continent
This situation furnishes the field for
the enterprises of the central figure
of the story. Clever, ambitious, I'M
scrupu1ous, Charles Tracy becomes an
adroit instrument of pacifist preach
ment under German pay. Against
the family background of full-hearted
and open-handed patriotism the du-
pick character of this alien son slow
ly reveals itself. Admirable work,
even for this writer. 1t is a difhcult
theme, one that is open to forced
tions. 1t is the freedom from arti-
fatalities of this sort that lifts the
work to it's high level. 1t is the in
side work that gives the good stamp
the writer's knowledge Of the con-.
tradictions that lie in every human
law that every man holds secretly
within himself Then, too, the logic
Of the story counts for it. The mat
ter goes straight ahead to its own
conclusion-an unhappy one. to be
sure-but its own. nevertheless. A
timely story of admirable workman
ship.
GUN FODDER; The Diary of Four
Years of War. BY A. Hamilton
Gibbs. Boston: Little, Brown &
Co.
When the war broke out young
Gibbs was at home, in England. on q
vacation from the strenuous job of
trying to make way for himself in
literature by way of the American
book markets. The vacation turned
into q four-year fighting service that
diary of young Gibbs soldering. He
is Maj. Gibbs of the Royal Artillery
now. At the beginning he was get
anywhere private. Quite stretch
of work between the two points.
Quite stretch of ground covered. too.
in that time-all the way from the
training camps of England to the
Dardanelles and back again to the
western front. There are ten thou
sand war books, more or less, clamor-
ing at the elbow of anybody who can
read at ala discouraging number
that leads toward no reading at ALL
All of them have their points. Some
of them are intellectually worth while,
for this reason or that. This is one
Of the worthwhile kind. AS graph
ic picture-not overdrawn. not over
centered in the writer-it gives the
NJ Ia
and service. Gibbs did not start as
an artilleryman. He set out in the
cavalry) Again, it stays by the
work of the common soldier. making
hero out Of the most unlikely ma
terial that put up so cheerful fight
against mud and cold and rain and
lice and scant rations and full TWEEN
ty-four rounds of work and every
other conceivable torment The young
fellows feelings are in the right
place. They are under good con-
troll. too. He has a good sweep Of
facts fall where they will. And he
can write-this runs in the family. it
appears. since he is a brother of Phil
ip Gibbs and of Cosmo Hamilton. All
in all, this is one Of the considerable
personal outlooks upon the war from
q recognised soldier in the field.
COLAS BREUGNON. BY Roman Roll
land, author of n-Christophe."
Translated by Katherine Miller.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. :.
.."Colas Breugnon" marks playtime
for Roman ROLAND after the ardors
and labors of such exacting work as
"Jean-Christophe." Here he has a
chance to stretch himself in the sun.
to. breathe deep. to taste the freshness
of out-of-d doors, to roll the savors of
q laroa and untrauhled exiSten unan