Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-09-27
BY IDA GILBERT MYERS.


Hume, author of wife of the
Centaur." New York: George H.
Doran Co.
A novel does we'll that fills its hour
and goes on it's way Not one in a
thousand does even this. But what
about the novel that not only fills
its own hour but stays by many Of
the readers succeeding hours in
haunting reminders of the awful lone
illness and helplesSneSs and futility Of
youth? Something must be done
about it. That is what you say.
Certainly in plain humanity something
must be done to fortify youth. to I'M
derstand 1t, to companion 1t. Every
body has been young, so he knows all
about youths bewilderment and its
yearningS-half dream and half dis
torted pictures OF the things around
him. Knowing of course he can help.
Then he stops. as troubled and con-
fused as youth itself. For he deSn't
know how to help. Nobody does.
There is no help. Then he goes all
over it again. milling round and round
in wishes that have no beginning and
no end.
It's Claude Fishers life that we
are talking about-EiSher, a boy Of
dreams with no defenSes against
reality" We sit down beside them at
the Jonquil Club while South tells
this writing man the story of Fisher
Fisher himself coming and going once
before the story took its start. A
quiet thing-juSt four of us sitting
there while South in his even way lets
the life Of Fisher drift over us and
settle upon us. a true story-no
sense that there are innumerable
EjSh 10 % In
unutterable loneliness of being alive
in a densely peopled world. Under
stand, this story never once leaves
Claude Fisher. 1t is his story. The
spread of its effect upon one lies in
its absorbed and exclusive attention
70 the boy and man himself.
Engagingly artful in its mechanics.
the story itself Is as artless as bare
truth can be. \ sincere. intelligent
and undertaking course through the
amazing country of one youths life.
INVISIBLE WOUNDS. BY Frederick
Palmer, author of The Nagabond,"
etc. New York: Dodd. Mead & Co.
Frederick Palmer believes that there
are hurts to the spirit decorations of
the Soul-'inviSible WoundS'-for
which there is no medicament save
that of love itself. Upon this belief
or upon this theme-he has based a
romance of depth and unusual beauty.
In it's full course the story is backed
by the great war itself, taking from
the forced and unnatural charac-
teristics of that event situations and
incidents that contribute to the
romance its most tense moments, its
highest points of suspense. Since
love is to give healing to stricken
souls, it must be love raised to the
nth degree of purity and strength.
And 1t is such a love that Mr.. Palmer
here seeks to portray. The story,
therefore, moves on a high level of
purpose, though it deals in intimate
fashion with the groundwork of war
itself. The early part of this romance
is of idyllic quality-picturing the life
of a sheltered girl who, with her
learned father. lives, his companion
and friend, in seclusion. 1t is this girl
who later becomes the center of in
terest in a world shattered by war
and filed with Its horrors. Clean-cut
pictures stand out here as the real
body of war itself, as the real body
of personal sacrifice and personal
capacity TO endure and still not to
give over. A swift story of incident
linked to incident in cumulative inter
est brings together here a rich con-
tent. of character and incident woven
into an even and substantial fabric OF
romance. Strength is the outstanding
quality here and beauty. The two in
separable.