New-York tribune., 1922-10-01

, Peter lavishes on his son, ,nanfullv
playing the game, pervades the chap
ters that deal with the lads infancy.
Detail is not piled upon detail, as Mr..
Sinclair Lewis does it in "Babbitt" and
Main Street" just enough OF the
workings OF the little ARt uptown are
given 30 that the reader has per
fectty rounded picture of the news
| paper mans aioofness and !oneness.
He gets drunk In desperation--for he
Is hnlking. healthy human being.-and
has moments Of passionate Withdrawals
from the world. He encounters women
OF tho strange women who
know Latin and much of higher
mathematics. and finally he meets the
girl Vonnie, who brings the new free
dom into his life" Peter is frank with
her. He is not going to fall in love
with her; and she promises that if she
tinds herself in danger she will warn
him. She helps him with the child
aster. and she is beautifully sketched
But she is not for Peter Neale, wrapped
up IN his son and in his newspaper.
The way is neatly gotten over. Peter
goes az a correspondent and in few
brief passages one gets the horror of
the conflict--a lesson is here for all
novelists and, OF course, he encounters
Maria in the French capital. She is
a success now and she weeps over the
picture Of her child. She would have
him be great singer like herself, but
the father who has cared for him all
these years, is just as sure he should
be newspaper man. There ls q dra-
matte scene between the parents, writ
ten with rare restraint, and it IS here
that Mr.. Broun reveals his undeniable
gifts as q novelist, yes, and as dra-
matist. He makes out Il case for his
hero and he does it well.
Back in America, with new manag-
ing editor-Rufus Twice is creation
Peter is showed from one difficult job
to another, and newspaper men and
laymen alike will revel in the pictures
given of life behind the scenes In n
newspaper office. Pat, the son, gets on
the paper with his father, and the
chapter dealing with the Yale-Haryard
football game is delightful. Indeed, as
one might expect, Mr.. Broun has much
to say of sports, and out Of his long
experience he has many gay anecdote
of the athletic field to weave into his
novel.
II would be unfair to tell how the
novel ends, but l can say this much,
it is the only logical ending. And with
his customary restraint Mr.. Broun gets
over n difficulty which proves him an
artist
The novel cries out for quotation.
1t is studded with epigrams, original
observations, keen, biting sentences
and q clairvoyant understanding of the
masculine mind. "Peter usually agreed
with people when he felt that they
wanted him to-" And again, che
dreaded the task of invading the
agencies in seach Of new nurse, and
there did not seem any other feasible
arrangement" "pat grew, but it was
slow work. Kate would speak of an
ounce as if it were some silver trophy
which the child had won" And when
the boy was sick unto death and after
the crisis had passed Mr.. Broun writes
this poignant paragraph: There was
no trace of the shadow upon Pat next
day. Peter was the haggard one.
Something had gone out of him during
the night as he held Pat in his arms.
Father and child were doing rs we'll
as could be expected" And at another
time, "Life,s' thought the harassed
Peter Nea'e, "ia just one bedtime story
after another" And this: Writing
for newspaper is like splitting into
Niagara Falls. Anybody that can write
ought to get on 8 magazine and do
something that'll last anyway from
breakfast to dinner time"
Do you get the flavor Of the novel?
1t is one of those books that cannot
De laid aside--a touching, human docu-
meIit written by man twho has dug
into life and found 1t good. for all its
sorrow.