Evening star., 1924-04-29
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE PRISONER WHO SANG. Johan

THE PRISONER WHO SANG. Johan
Bojer. The Century Company.
Andreas Petersen Berget-Nor-
wegian. A fat, pink little boy with
a mop Of yellow hair. Andreas lived
with his mother and an old bachelor
uncle. That he never had a father
meant nothing to him, nor would it
even had he been of an age to realize
the fnfamy of his mothers out
rageous neglect of so indispensable
| a provision. And this is sign. For
never in all Of his life could Andreas
be made to feel the Importance of
rules and regulations. That his
| mother was a hunchback-now, this
was something different. Here was
matter OF interest. even of pride.
For no other mother that he ever
came across carried this queer pack
upon her shoulders. This, too, a
sign. A sign of the boys lifelong
passion for being set apart from
others by any sort of difference and
distinction. These two traits domi-
ors of his fate.
These three-Andreas, the mother,
| the uncle-liyed away in the deep
forest, beside narrow road that
Yclimbed past them up the hill and
| then ran down the other side of it in
search of another smiling valley like
the one from which it had just come.
| Andreas, lonely with the two old
folks? Don't you think it. He turned
| the green world around him into
playfellows, inventing a brand-new
game every minute or so. The little
house and the COW shed beside it he
| made out to be husband and wife.
| grown gray and wrinkled from hav-
| ing to sit out in every sort of
weather. Children? Oh, they had
plenty Of children. these two. See
all the brown boulders. big and little,
! out among the alders and down be-
! side the romping brook? These were
their children, good for many a game.
| IL they grew tresome Andreas had
| only TO hurl handful of pebbles
| among the hens and cry Hawk
Out his mother would run. screaming.
| where? Did you see him. 81 should
! think / did. He was as big as that"
And Andreas would stretch his pudgy
arms in measurement, looking eager
| ly meanwhile into "A sky that was
wholly destitute of any hawk. The
| fowls would fiutter and squawk as
| If they could tell another story If
| called upon. Then the mother would
| bless herself and him for the escape
of the poultry and Andreas would go
| away where he could not be seen.
| Then he would lie down fiat on his
| stomach and laugh. Lonely? Not in
such lively place as that
| +
! A husky, muscular fellow-Andreas.
| Only fifteen now, but looking quite the
man. Dressed in a complete outfit of
! flsheTman's togs that his mother had
sold a heifer to buy. Walking away
very smiling and handsome to join the
| fishermen bound north to the Lofoten
| Islands. And the next day his mother
! from the top of the highest hill round
about saw the fleet move out from the
| ford. II shall never see him again..
! she wept. The next week Andreas was
/ back. He had run away. He had sold
/ his fishermanS s outfit. But he had in
/ place Of il a big new watch and a splen-
! did walking stick It came to him all at
the fleet he would always be fisherman.
| In that case he could not be the shoe
maker, nor the tailor, nor any one of
those others that from the inside of him
were forever knocking and inploring
! him to be let out into the world once
more.
! :; = 4 4
| time. Nothing easier than this, accord
| ing to him. All you have to do is TO feel
like a merchant, deep within you, to get
the point OF view And the outside, in
no time at all, will begin to conform.
You not only feel the part, but you look
| it and act it Then you go to some
trade town, just far enough away from
Z
! with care and discrimination, waywise
to the business, you see. You talk casual
Iy about the farm, and the monstrous
| hauIs this year from. the Lofoten banks.
So. gradually, you come upon the sub
| ject of credits, the backbone of business.
| Just as easy as that. To be sure, in a
| few weeks in the case of Andreas, the
creditors were upon him tearing their
/ hair for moneys due. A minor matter.
What really did count was that AndreaS
had had the time of his life. so far. turn
+ ing out a new role in q fashion that de
! lighted him. Tremendous fun, while it
( lasted To be sure, AndreaS went to
! Jail. A lucky outcome in q way, for il
! gave him leisure to summon and get
| ready to project another of his multi
| fariouS selves
x j: :, i
| By this time Andreas had become
| famously infamous to an enlargine
| area and audience. To him, however
| life was a Joyous thing under this
obsession to transform himself, tc
| take on this and that new being with
increasing facility and aplomb. The
great mystery Of the world, to him
| an unsolvabIe one, was that any
| human could endure being the same
| person year in, year out That any
! one could sail to Lofoten and back
| again winters on end. That any, one
| could work hard on the same farm, or
| quarrel with the same wife, this
! year, as he will do a dozen years
! from now. That he can endure for-
| ever being merely Knut or Ola and
| ony, Unendurable fate. When he
was n child, SO the mind of Andreas
| ran, he had been content to initiate
| simply. But now his growing pas
| sion was to put on another mans
! very being-Peter today, Paul tomor-
keen delight of many transforms
| tions. Already he had been beg
| gar, q farmer, a shopkeeper, parish
! pauper, jailbird. Not so bad-witt
life yet in its early morning hours
| for Andreas Out and away into
| IioIS anu AuAci hoNehtuieS Aoi the
! fulfillment of his own many selves
| Out and away to the shocked amaze
| nent of the whole human herd, each
one imprisoned in the narrow cage
OF his own dull and Interchangeable
! being.
| X K
But, like everybody else, Andreas
had his own Nemesis. UnluckiIy for
him it was a modern Nemesis, intol-
| Grant of broken laws and hostile to
| offenses against the accepted pattern
| of current life. So, alas, poor An
dreas! \ great character. Great in
| the sense that Andreas is eyery man