Evening star., 1921-07-03
MY SOUTH SEA SWEETHEART. BY

Terrible Island" New York: The
Macmillan Company
7 TERE is a first-rate summer
- time novel. 1t carries one
away to a South sea island.
where, night and day. cool
breezes blow; where the "pareo' COW
ering trunk and loins is clothing
enough for anybody, where 1000 Is
chiefly a matter of IIcking it from
the trees, where nobody ever heard
of a Mr.. Volstead. and where the
landscape is a dream of JOY ana
beauty. In these elysian surround
ings the writer sets her story. WITH
in this new Eden .shc places a BOY
and girl. designed for each other
and brought here to save them from
the hard knocks of an unfriendly
world. The idyllic design progresses.
up to certain point Just as the
girls father and the boy 9 granu
father have so painstal:ingiy WORKED
it cut. And this progress Is maze
with much of fascinating detail con-
cerning the life of these two children
and the general life of the isiapu II
self The plan is working finely ana
the elders are happy in the VISION
that hit uron 50 sane scheme lh'h
life takes a hand and the plan goes
to smash. The wickedcst man la
sails the seas" lands upon the is
land The youthful lover turns out
to be no more than brother. VI
course. those men might have known
it. The girl. looking back through
many years. tells the story here.
tinging it with the sorrows that came.
lor Of hn
The story engages one throughout.
But it is. after all, the writer's famil-
iarly with this quarter of the world
that gives to her account of the is
land and it's life the chief attraction
of the romance.
BLIND MICE. BY c. Kay Scott New
York: George H. Doran Company.
Like Main Street." which caused so
much of favorable comment, this
novel presents a case of microscopic
investigation applied to social life.
This is a study of the family. most
delicate subject. hedged about by all
sorts of no-trespaSS signs. NeVerthe-
less selecting and adjusting his high
power instruments, Mr.. Scott sets
himself to the business of construct
ing the drama of family. When We
ready have little son and have
passed out of those early ardors that
die of their own exactions. II the
truth must be told, John has almost
reached that familiar boredom stage.
So he accepts with joy the news that
his youthful mother law is coming
to stay with them. That is the story.
She comes. John revives under the
effects of her vivacity. her music. her
good clothes, her determination to be
admired And Jim. Johns friend. is
disguised with John. So. naturally.
he tries to keep Lucy from feeling a
neglect that is most obvious. At the
end of the story nothing has hap
pened. That is the way with families.
Nothing happens. They go on. Moth
fields. sympathetic family friends
cut and run. The wife conceals any
easements that she may have gath
cred in from a friendly world on the
outside. The husband just stodges
along tolerably well content. And at
tragic narrowing of souls the two sit
gravely discussing some little mat
,, tef. like the kind of car that they
would better buy. You will not like
this story, you family folks. You will
say that it is not a truthful picture.
One wants to be polite about the
grand conspiracy of secresy. You
will admit, however, that it Is amaZ-
ingly intuitive work that digs deep
into the sources OF lamlly aCtfon anu
reaction-that is. in the case OF any
I family except your own.
DESERT VALLEY. By jackson Greg
ory, author of Man to Man." etc.
Frohtispiece by Frank Tenney
Johnson New York: Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons.
An adventure Of the southwestern
country of Arizona and New Mexico
that gets its decided touch of novelty
through ,the qualities of the tender
foot that acts as foil to the familiar
westerner of the novelist. This is an
old man of the Bronson Alcott type.
yeritable babe in the woods. He
is. however. a great geologist ousted
from his eastern professorship to
make way for a younger and more
practical man. Fired to prove his
mettle by this treatment, the profess
sor betakes himself and his daugh-
ter to the far west to locate n fact,
that with which he. Is so familiar
q,