The Washington herald., 1922-02-05

@Jasa Head" To be sure "cy-
therea's" group live in the present
but il seems to bel effectively cut
on from ordinary mortals- II Is,
Sou. see, that "smafrt," rich, unem-
rroyed, cocktail d linking. country
club crowd" which has already
achJeyed consid$ rable fame in nc
tion and dramd "Cytherea," how
ever. has nothing to do with flap
ppersS against Wild pm most of the So
Ciaf af,yituperatiOn of today has been
hurled. Instead the book confines
ftself to the mar Fied-but unsettled
-uniddle-aged and omits the young.
Yet the things (which receive the
rnost stHemDhasis bout these middle
sEed persons are exactly the same
things which fictLo has pinned Tor
us on the fiapper Stories Cocktails
pTomiscuous kissifG, staircase tete-
a-tetes and all tk1at, make up al
r1Yost' the entire Surrounding of Lee
-Randon. the rich,l Eliminating gen.
tieman of the la4e torties, VINO Is
50. e6mfortable and so rich that ne
has nothing to wSrry about except
hrs own restlessnAss and dissatis-
faction which he pVts down to de-
sire for love. H4 has a devoted
acre who wearies i'm. although he
rates to admit II. al fd two charming
children who do ntt need him, be-
SIDES a series of hSiends, just as
rich and idle as he who are ap-
parently resourcelessTn the face OF
me same restIessnes{ and dissatis-
factlon that eats Led. and so take
to- cocktails and kisses in parked
IfInousines as means Npf distraction.
Picture Not Areesting.
17hiit this is. Of couSs Sc. perfectly
legitimate and IL we lremark that
wa do not like it. Mr.. Hergesheimer
,sno well reply that is scarcely
mis- fault II these things are so.
,Horeyer. the point is that in spite
OF Mr.. Hergesheimer'5 powers it is
not, 1xfter all. an especially arrest
dnrJpicture. There are times when
We are frankly bored with these in
tabitants of Eastlake and their
smooth lives, varied only by COCK
tails, and we wonder. il the author
in.his earnestness has not laid 1t
ON too thick. For after all, these
zrrs not very unusual people so far
az fiction goes, and we have read
Of ztheir scandalous doings before.
II, takes something considerably
deeper than this to hold our atten-
8ioE and Mr. Hergesheimer mas
r-nIy partially supplied it. Not even
sayfna Grove, the New York lady
pr41orelopes with Lee to Cuba. quite
eayes the book from monotony.
Nor does the presence OF the DOLL
Cvtherea, with its NEUROLOGICAL i'm
piIcations, standing as II does IN
Lees mind for a perfect but un-
attained love, always prevent the
things reading like a cheaper Ell
TortSt than 1t is. And il apparently
fN H0rCPEheln1eT
TSsf-dn the course of reiteration
zornsr readers might be driven 10
SSt,rtInc the number Of times
5rfI4i<s ana legs are mentioned In
Eastlake.
+-Tns- reasons for all this are, we
,hjnk two, the one dependent upon
-. ,o,her. First. Mr.. Hergesheimers
a.s-Jon for details and settings Is
souod 10 get him into trouble II his
cbsracters are not big enough TO
Dominate the scene. The very fact
that he can write amazing descrlp-
tian. throws undue emphasis on the
scenery, so that the tail begins 70
war the dog, IL the people Of the
,s5Sy are none too strong. But why,
xon;ask, are they not strong? Wen.
ybSfe YOU come to the second reason
Tbsy are not strong because they
"a NOT wholly real. They walk and
III great deal of the time ex-
a-tlY like persons in novels, not
\ Ir<e persons in real life. They are
r,,r16,,sly childish ana futile. 1t ap-
rsSrss that Mr.. Hergesheimer has
i,t.rI succeeded in getting far enough
.sUsor- from them actually TO see
Them whole. Fanny, Lee RAMON
vtseT-ts probably the clearest char-
artar:-in the book, and she Is also
tho one from whom the dutnor
~.ens farthest removed. Lee. him.
seIT he never quite sees effectively
T,he great trouble is, we fear, that
M -HerEcsheimcr has very ittie
sonSa of humor. Irony, he knows
andIuses well, but II is cold irony
Never does the warmth OF rcaI
hupnor play over Lee Random ana
SCe him a human being. Nor does
- n1ay on anyone else, with the cX-
rention perhaps Of one Peyton
Morris and his pure. collegiate
friends, and here, while 1t does
!r-yr TO make Peyton's crowd
slightly more real than the rest II
natronizing, aloof humor all
- tirne. Humor. OF course, pre-
SHnposes an ability to get away
t-onI an object and see it in per-
snectfye. and that Mr.. Hergesheimer
i'Tbe present instance has not done
VI. IL so wrapped up in the thing
mat he cannot see IL. In the case
- easyina Grove, for instance. he ap-
. Ssrently does not know that she
cotnes dangerously near to the
risIculous. OF course, she is alb
nornal. but not until she dies In
tA,hst does she become real enough
S<v.lfs to take her seriously. But
NJ Hergesheimer takes her with
carefuI seriousness, as he does all
ts.,-rest Of his creatures. who after
.S,s EooIx rather small when you reao
aE1A.m from afar. And the result
ant impression is one OF dissatis-
faction
.AU,,tInr Poor stun Beautifully.
Vet 10 ali this you must add the
;rcontroyertible fact that Herge-
EaID.sr can write. All the time
80 he may be irritating you by
Dnarently wasting your time over
,,prsaIities. you know that from a
srtsin point of view, he is doing
III HReautifuny. He Is one OF the
,-..fsst masters of words in Amer
g and il he is not such a master
TTsprrtences che will persist in
S,5stfnC and inverting them until
SLn pInrader's- mind jumps of the
,rarkID he is certainly master Of
tbo art Of creating impressions Ana
SS%ibSfea' even after we have SAID
,-,--S H5orst. which is that Mr.. Herse-
sbeImer has not clothed il in real
TEs~remains so much more impress
SSsI,bsp most contemporary novels
Srtyn e. feel we have probably been