The New York herald., 1921-05-29

that your criticism follows more cir
cumscribed tradition. You are a kind
of gourmet whose palate is acutely
sensitive to accustomed favors and
satieties. 1t is always easier to be an
epicure of a small repast than of a
banquet. When you raise your
eye from the last line you pass through
a most peculiar mental process. II all
takes place in few seconds. IN
flash you see the shape and form and
color, the application of the title, Tie
point of the whole thing. You demand
this. and you also demand to have your
senses tickled by some cunning solu-
tion and TO he soothed by something
unexpected at the close"
The nine stories that the author has
brought together in this volume make
entertaining reading; one of them. "A
Source of Irritation the story of an
rnimaginative old gardener who has "A
fantastic airplane experience, is as fine
a yarn as we have read in years. 1t is
home run with the bases full. An
Other of the stories, 1.-THE Little White
Frock," is a three bagger: "The Great
Unimpressionable" is a two bagger
The Golden Windmill and "A Good
Action" are one base hits, The Bent
Tree" and Them Others" are pop flies,
while The Brothers" and "Old Iron"
are strikeouts. Whether the official
scorers markings are the same is hard
to say, but we are sure he will agree
that Mr.. Aumonier has a creditable
batting average.
The most disappointing story in the
book is "A Good Action" which has
the best mise en- scene of the lot and
the best strokes of characterization
il starts out to be "A better story than
"A Source of Irritation" and winds up
far behind it. The reason is that Mr.
Aumonier sets out to spin a character
yarn. forgets Cor deliberately discards)
his original purpose and gives us a
conventional trick story. Real char
acter work In the short story form is
as rare as smooth dactylic verse or
good restaurants I'm Philadelphia In
"A Good Action" we get in a few
strokes perfect portrait of Dolling,
the sententious fish store manager.
He was remarkably like a fish him
self. He had the same dun, express
sionless eyes and the dropping mouth
and dropping mustache. Everything
about him dropped and dripped. lie
was always wet. His braces.
trousers and hair all seemed the same
color, lie had all the tacitur-
nifty of a fish and its peculiar ability
for getting out Of a difficulty. He never
spoke. He simply looked lugubrious,
and pointed at things with his knife"
The reader becomes intensely inter-
ested In this human fish: the possi-
hilities are great. But Mr.. Aumonier
has been joshing us. After Dolling has
Served the purpose Of interesting us in
the story his creator throws him away.
As the tale now stands Dolling and
the fish store locale could be dis
carded and a cobbler and shoe repair
shop substituted or no substitution
made, without affecting the narrative
one jot In a story where the back
ground Is frankly presented as an in
Cshnlal item TINS Is permissible, /,
where. as in "A Good Action" the
mise On scene Is panstakingly de-
veloped. good technique demands that
the situations unfold themselves in or
at least be an integral part of this
background. There Is no room i'm a
short story for irrelevancies. especially
glarins ones. "A Good Action" does
not. as the preface indicates deal with
fish shop: as It now stands-the
. world old tale of a man who Is foiled
in his attempts TO do a kind deed-the
FISH store background can be slashed
out without affecting the unity. IT is
tackled on.
We have taken the pains 10 make
this point because II Is a common prac-
tice in short story writing to-day ts
lay on the atmosphere" heavily.
whether II means anything or not.
Perhaps the magazines IN demanding
stories of a certain length are re-
sponsible Anyhow. Il usually results
in 500 or 1000 unnecessary words
I'm IA Good Action" whore the TO be
abandoned atmosphere Is 50 perfectly