New-York tribune., 1919-11-15
The Raincoat Girl
Pollyannaesque Touches
In Novel by Miss Lee
THE RA1NCOAT GIRL. BY Jeanette
Lee: Published by Scrbners. New
XArlx

THE RAINCOAT GIRL. BY Jeanette
Lee: Published by Scribner's, New
York.
Two of the most disliked and I sup
pose most desirable character attri-
butes are abnormal efficiency and per-
petual good cheer. "The Raincoat Girl"
discloses the fortunes of young wom-
an, conspicuously endowed with these
excellent but unpleasant qualities.
Her environment is unfavorable and
inclined to repress all natural desires
and ambitions. This is not ques-
tion, however, of adaptation to environ
ment. The person in question adapts
her surroundings to herself In other
words, she is what is commonly known
as constructive and finds it as simple
to reorganize business as to trans
form her old, shabby dress into a new
and pretty one.
We are apt to be somewhat on the
defensive with this exponent of joy
and success. Successful people are
acceptable. socially, provided they
have had q decent number of setbacks
In spite of the ominous pinstorm
that launches the heroine in cloudy
atmosphere and presumably on a sea
of trouble, she never encounters a
significant cloudburst. She conquers
all without struggle and is utterly
above our sympathy.
Another center of interest in the
novel is a youthful and modern poet,
intended to be delightfully."- absurd and
actually drawn along conventional
lines. He is dull Fothergil Finch, a
poet too lazy to learn to run a type
writer and too conservative to super
wise Little Group of Serious Think
ers.
The trend of this book is decidedly
modern. Jeanette Lee not only con-
Germs herself with philosophy, fem-
nism and the artist in conflict with
gross world, but she also tackles the
burning problems of capital and labor
Her characterization of successful
capitalist is fairly good one. The
portrayal is not unusual, but it is at
crat sings a song of capital, pocket
full of kale, and a charming girl, con-
temporaneous in ideas if not in years,
listens to his song with appreciation
In the end capital and labor settle
down cozily in the same family group
and fundamental convictions are not
allowed to interfere with fundamental
and felicitous emotions.
If one were to diagram one of the
typical sentences in this book the
grammarian thus employed would find
himself beset by adverbs. This is
the kind of fiction the problematical
Daisy Ashford absorbed before she
decided to embellish every other SEN
tence with an He said kindly" Be-
sides the profusion Of adverbs we find
ar extraordinarily modern use of the
adjective noticeable as rule in
mediocre current poetry. Miss Lee
refers, quite naturally, to pale
voice" and a calm pencil" Her style
is further vitiated by a sort of vapid
symbolism that suggests a familiarity
with Maeterinck, Tagore and the lesser
works of Galsworthy. Clumsy hints
are dropped now and then to the effect
that fate, or something equally mystic,
is at large, shaping and misshaping
mems destines. No doubt the same
fate has predetermined the future of
her book so that it is needless to
predict that veterans Of the Pollyanna
cult can find plenty to crafty them in
"The Raincoat Girl"