The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-07
ABOUT A U TIL o RS
Young America Hesitates Bewildered ID
Strange and Troubled World

Here the unity OF the book seems 10 be
strained for what has been a story Of every
American now jumps into scenes and ideas
which few Americans experienced AS cor
respondent In Germany, and afterward in
Russia, Larry Hart finds and describes what
was seen by few Americans in the Red
Cross or the Y NJ. c. A.
With Americas entry into the war the
story comes back into the main current Of
our own national life In training camp, on
transport and in battle the story of Larry
Hart is hat OF thousands of his countrymen,
and its emotions are true and vivid were
the great tidal emotions Of that tremendous
summer of 1918. At the end OF II he finds
himself back in the old New England house,
blinded by a shell splinter, and wri ing the
story of his life upon his old typewriter to
clear his thoughts and restore his sanity.
AS he sits there he represents America itself,
blinded by the shock of war; mad with saw
age passions and yet longing for light and
peace, struggling to become articuate and
to formulate the desires and hopes of the
new day.
Larry Hart is not the hero Of the book, IN
the usual sense, for the story resembles real
life In having no plo-, and consequently no
heroes or heroines. Zach character is clear
cut and individual, and any one of them
might have been assigned the part OF the
first person. Steve McCrea, the doctor, is
man whom one would travel far to meet; IL
is the good fortune of America that one
seldom has to travel far to meet his kind.
Starting as a liberal doing investigation
work in the slums; then developing into
great surgeon. with the success psychology;
then blood poison, a ruined righ' hand, and
a new start as director of a country sani-
tarium, new start both in circumstances
and in spiritual life; even in his subsequent
experience as Red Cross doctor in Germany.
his history like that of everybody in this
book, is made up of a small portion of ma
terial events surmounted by a complex and
intense spiritual life.
1t is this true proportion between the cir
cumstance wi hout and the living person
within that produces the startling effect OF
reality in Mr. Poole's book. Life as most
of us realize, consists not in n ser Is OF
events happening to pupprt IS but in lot of
groups of people doing things and having
wishes hopes. plars, successes and dieaD-
pointments. Mr.. Poole has chosen the real
istic style of painting his story as a charac-
ter study with modern history as its stage
setting. There is no grip 10 the plot, one
knows IN advance that there will be war,
and how 1t will end. One is merely put down
into a family Of intelligent Americans very
much, perhaps. like ones own family; with
them he lives over again the life of the last
thirty years. and with them he looks forward
into the uncertain future. There Is no ro-
nance in II except the pleasure Of enlarging
the circle of ones own life; there is no ad-
venture, except the tremendous adventure
which II is 10 be an American In these
days. There is no humor, except the cease
less undercurrent of humor THAI is charac-
teristic of the best types Of Americans and
which is mostly made up IF thorough APP
probation of the normal relations Of things
and people and Uf the absurd manner in
which they continually get out or kil;er In
delightful olG Aunt Amelia Is expressed the
characteristic American idealism thar hopes
and fights now under and above the
surface of our history.