Evening star., 1919-09-21
Reviews of the Books

THE HAND or THE POTTER. BY
Theodore Dresser, author OF Sister
Carrie" etc. New York: Boni 4
Livefight.
lT HEoDoRE DRESSER here
makes use Of four-act play
to crystalline the tragedy Of =
pervert. An east-side Jewish
boy-Isadore Berchansky-set upon
by himself and goaded to desperation
by the SEIZURE Of the open streets.
runs amuck, and in his madness
makes a little neighbor girl his vic
tim. The missing girl, the finding
of her body, the man hunt, the dawn
ing fear of the Berchansky family
that Isadore might have done this
thing. their pathetic efforts to de-
ceive themselves and others, their ex-
animation in the courtroom-these
are the steps by which the play rises
to its climax. when Isadore-starved,
hiding. hunted, hated-slips finally
out and away through the friendly
offices of an open gas Jet and an
arms length of rubber tubing. That
is the play. Without an extra word
and with never a stepping aside from
the author. with a new austerity of
spirit. in rigid economy of gesture.
sets the hideous thing out nakedly. Is
II a form performance? Not at all.
II reforming measures should come
out of this play they will come by
virtue of the fact that readers must
get together for their own peace of
mind to help the unfortunate. Dresser
is not thinking about social ameliora-
tlon-that is, not to the extent of de-
forming his play. He is tremendously
busy painting the thing as it is. And
is it about? What is ones own part?
What can he do? What are the
forces-.sinister and beneficent-that
mix themselves so inextricably in
each one Of US? A terrible play
and terrible because it impels one to
iook INTO his own depths and because
IL leads him to realize his own moth
ingness in the hidden motives of the
grand whole.
MARY OLIVIER, A Life. BY May
Sinclair. author Of "The Divine
Fire, etc: New York: The Mac
milan Company.
Any novelist might be proud to have
achieved Mary Olivier" And among
Miss Sinclair's own novels this one
stands out In special distinction and
radiance of its own. The story begins
with the babyhood Of Mary olivier
and ends when she is forty-seven-a
spinster, still young, still seAkina,
In substance, 1t is the record ~ tyr.
amy of the family, toward the oc-
casional wait that. by some strange,
an alien father ana mother, ST only
half kin to its brothers and sisters
Just to be different from the others
this is the wedge that drives In be:
tween the much overicountsd blood
vier was different--Aistinetiy differ-
ent from the conventiohal1y feminine
mother to whom the father and three
brothers paid the regulation allegi-
Sinclair brings into the open also that
which everybody knows. but that also
which is vehen1ently denie0-the
jealousy which mother often feels
the affections Of the male members
Of the household. These two hypocfi-
sizes. openly acknowledged and used
as the motive power of this narrative,
statid as the something different that
is nniaas. There Is little of 81 eoi.sssa- S USas
plet. Instead the author strikes OF
it.Sle sey s sRRaSv RsStrss Matx tat os,ar as Whole
clear pefsonality through the differ
emit periods Of her life In equal life
likeness too. this method presents
the MANY 0ther characters that along
the way, touch Mary vitality in her
quest for satisfaction and happiness
The story as a whole becomes the i'm
mediate necessity Of the reader Cne
does not stop, having taken it up,
till he goes with the heroine iii her
many experiments, ana Usual failures,
in the field of human happiness.
GoING WEST. BY Basil Kins. author
of ".Abfaham's Besofn,' etc. New
York: HARPER q Bros.
II the dead are still alive. this 10 the
supreme hour Of aiinanciAtion. For
millions 0f men ana women tlif0uah-
out the world are, just now, In the
common Bond Of an unspeakabie
yeafning 1t the death barrier. And
II the dead are still Aiive-then IT
must Be that squa! waves 6f iionesick
longing are pressing against the
farthef side of that dark wall. Thia
tremkndous single force cannot be
resistea cannot be denied-if the dead
are still alive. The thought, the hope,
the belief. is taking hold Of men and
drama, II story and scientific record.
The little book in hand Is 4 leaf from
ing. It is the story of 4 soldier. who
yond this point it is the story OF re-