The New York herald., 1922-04-09

as against the dangerous looseness
of modern theories. There are ele-
ments of real bigness in the ''Briary
Bush" 1t studies with unabashed
frankness, the trouble that Felix Fay
and his girl-wife, Rose-Ann, gratui-
tously make for themselves by VOW
ing mutually to leave each other
free. If ever either finds love wan
ing or fancy straying elsewhere,
they are free to be off with the old
love and on with the new. The time
comes when the man does wander
and accepts his freedom; but what
sounded so logical in theory is disas-
trous in practice. Felix Fay's new
freedom turns to ashes; while Rose
AIMS generosity is the mask of a
heart break that leaves her long i'm
placable. 1t is only after a thorny
pilgrimage and much penance that
they realize that their foundation
mistake lay in playing at mar
riage."
In Brass" the theme is not merely
the rather hasty and ill-advised mar
riage of Philip Baldwin and Marjorie
Jones, but of Marjorie's sister, and
Marjories friends, of Philips part
ner and various business connections
and one and all of these marriages
turn out disastrously. Sometimes it
is the fault of the wife, sometimes of
the husband. and again of both, with
the mother-in-law aiding and abet.
ting. From sheer surfeit of incom-
patibility and infidelity the net i'm
preston is one of WEAKNESS and dis
taste. Mr.. Norris would be much
more convincing if he had not SO
woefully overdone it. Like SO many
of the younger group. he mistakes a
sweeping pessimism for mature wis
dom. His title strikes the keynote:
Marriage vainly shines like gold
but it's no more than brass, raw
cut and ugly, cheap and tawdry,
hard edged and bitter-tasting = a
sorry substitute that gangrenes the
minute it ceases to be new" Such is
the incessant note pounded out
through 452 pages. 1t defeats itself
by sheer exaggeration.
SX.
Sherwood Anderson has been taken
with a seriousness out of all proper
ton to his achievements. That he
can achieve the results he aims at
and leave behind him the memory of
bad dream must be granted him.
AT best he has the grimness of Poe
or Baudelaire, without their breadth
of human understanding. His char
acters, one and all, belong to the psy-
chopathic ward. They are neurotics,
religious fanatics, erotomaniacs, VIC
Tins of some fixed idea. In short,
Mr.. Anderson is a craftsman of YER
bal gargoyles, but, unlike the gar
goyles of French Gothic architecture.
they do not even serve the practical
function of drain pipes; the stories
remain malodorous.
John Dos Passos comes near to be-
ing the most significant figure among
latest arrivals. Three Soldiers" is
bigger book than has generally
been conceded. Many of the review
ers have been more concerned with
the question of its truth as an indict-
ment of American army methods and
conditions than in its quality as a
work of art From the latter point
it makes little difference whether the
incidents, singly or collectively, ever
actually happened. 1t is enough that
they very we'll might have happened
and whatever the author intended,
his actual showing of attendant cir
cumstances leaves the conviction
that whatever degree of abuse and
discipline his three heroes received
was merited. they were looking for
trouble, and they got it. 1t is i'm
possible in a few brief lines to touch
in detail upon the epic quality of
"Three Soldiers" 1t has the kind of
frankness and of self-restraint that
we associate with the Latin rather
than the Anglo-S Saxon novel. The
book is Zolaesque in it's ambitious
scope, it's crowded, tumultuous de-
tail, it's sense of multitudes of herded,
driven humanity. 1t is equally true