The New York herald., 1922-01-15
Major Beth Defies
War Book Taboo
THE WILLING HORSE. BY Ian Hay.
Houghton Miffiin Company.

THE WILLING HORSE. BY Ian Hay.
Houghton Miffiin Company.
~ NE is informed that novels
touching upon the war are
no longer read says Major
Ian Hay Beth in his foreword to the
reader. This. if true. reduces the
novelist to the following alternatives:
"Q) Writing a novel of some period
of the worlds history antecedent to
the year nineteen-fourteen. This is
undoubtedly a wide field-the Chris
tian era alone covers twenty centuries
but it has been cultivated by several
writer's already.
"(2) Writing a postwar novel in
which it is assumed that the war
never happened. This would make it
rather difficult to know what to do
with the graves of our dead.
"(3) Writing a postwar novel about
people who took no pert in the war
This would restrict ones choice of
ANro, heroine, and characters gener-
ally to certified lunatics, convicts in
residence and conscientious objectors.
II have therefore decided to take a
chance. The tale which follows is
based:
"(d) Upon a frank admission that
there has been a war.
"(b) Upon a humble belief that the
people chiefly worth writing about in
these days are those who gave body.
soul-everything-to win that war.
"That explains my choice of title"
Forewarned, we plunged head first
into three hundred and eighty three
pages of war. And when we were fin
ished we wished there was more, de-
spite the fact that we usually steer
clear of three hundred and more page
novels, and heave a sigh of relief when
we have finished them. But not so
in the case of "The Willing Horse"
Major Alan Lains, through whose
eyes we see the lives and hearts of the
characters of this book, says early in
its pages "My theory was, and is, that
a woman only marries a man for one
of two reasons - either because he
gives her thrill or because she
thinks he requires taking care Of"
And it is proven to us through the
book-by Marjorie and by Liss Lyle.
There aren't many woman characters
in the book, but there is a wealth of
male characters, and one grows to love
Alan Laing and his keen insight; Roy
Rirnies and his irresistible youth and
love and desire to serve his country to
the last breath; and his father, Sir
Tom Birnie, whom one sees but little
of yet cannot help but admire because
he is true to himself, and out of that
grows many brave acts and Lord
Eskerley, remarkable old gen.
tleman, with certain pronounced and
rather alarming characteristics.
"In the first place, he has an un-
canny knack of reading ones thoughts
which enables him to begin a CONVEX
sation without wasting time over pre-
liminaries, which he hates. Secondly,
he has n peculiar habit of sidetracking
a subject right in the middle of a SEN
tence, sometimes because he is over
taken by reverie, sometimes because
another subject occurs to him-to re-
turn sooner or later, but always with
out warning, to the original topic-like
brackets in algebra. These conversa-
tional acrobatics call for considerable
agility on the part of the listener
The strain is increased by the circum-
stance that, owing to his uncanny
powers of memory, Lord Eskerley is
able (and usually proceeds) to take up
a conversation with you exactly where
he left it off. sometimes after an inter-
val of months. Decidedly he is a
character. But he is pillar of state
for all that, and. unlike some pillars of
state, he has done some service. He
likes me (Alan Laing) because catch
his references more quickly than most
people,
Our esteemed author has given us a
book which will last for years. In the
stress of wartime many emotional
characteristics were revealed by other
wise conservative people, and Ian Hay
has revealed those characteristics and
woven them into situations which ac-
for them, and he has also
to the surface the "stuff" that
men are made of. The story is a war
story, a character story, n love story
md an intensely active and interest
ng one. 1t is the type of story in
which n reader simply can't be-and
n't-disappointed.
And just one word about the con-
,lusi IN. 1t is clever. IL is left I'm the
lanGs of Lord Eskerley to close the
)ages OF the novel, He does - in
much the surprising manner in which
he usually does things! And the man
Ter? We will leave that to you to
ind out