The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-29
By Upton Sinclair

apparently going ahead to get di-
vorce in spite of everything; and l
put the book down and stared about
me, wondering if it could possibly
be that Mr.. Churchill was going to
write a book in defense of divorce.
He had made his hero and heroine
such very sensible people that it
seemed he was closing every other
gate save that one. However, real
lied that this could not be the case,
because when the heroine went ahead
to get the divorce Mr.. Churchill gave
such repellent picture of Reno, Ne
vada. Of course, it is true that the
people who go to Reno, Nevada, and
get divorces are many of them I'M
pleasant types; and doubtless the
political judges who grant the di-
vorces are also unpleasant types. APP
parently Mr.. Churchill does not real
ize that neither the hero nor the
heroine nor the demon divorce are to
be blamed for this. There is no rea-
son why, if we are going to grant
divorces to New York people, we
should not grant them in New York;
and there is no reason why we should
assign the duty of granting the
divorces to vulgar political judges.
81 went on with the story and fin
ally got to the solution which Mr..
Churchill has worked out. His heroine
gets her divorce, but against her con-
science, so that she is properly and
respectfully miserable afterward, and
makes them both miserable. They
go to live in a narrow little New
England town and the heroine insists
on going to respectable society
church and having her feelings hurt
because nobody speaks to her. She
also makes the. unfortunate husband
angry by her attitude, and when one
of the insufferable pillars of the res
pectable society church insults the
hero, the heroine takes the side of
the pillar of the church. She makes
her husband so unhappy that he fills
up his house with collection of dis
reputable Newport Divorces and goes
off riding on a half-crazy horse and
is killed.
Apparently nobody is expected TO
perceive that all the unhappiness
which grows out of this divorce is
owing to the fact that the heroine
gratuitously places herself at the
mercy of the opinions Of the respect
able bourgeoisie. You feel this at
the very moment where the divorce
begins to be talked about The hero
and the heroine have previously been
sensible American people, talking
about things in sensible ways; but
when they begin to talk about
divorce, neither of them points out
to the other any of the obvious facts
which make the divorce and re-
marriage between them not only a
perfectly proper thing, but even a
social duty. Their conversation is
confined to their blind craving for
happiness, and, Of course, when we
have met that word happiness
dozen or more times we understand
that the blind craving is destined to
lead them to destruction-since every
17-year-old moralist knows that the
desire for happiness is a wicked thing
which must under no circumstances
be INDUCED. They never mention the
fact that there are more intelligent
people in other portions of the world,
among whom they could perform work
of social usefulness and Importance.
Instead of going abroad for year or
two as such couple naturally would
they settle themselves in town and
proceed to let the town make them
miserable. We are given to under
stand that among the Newport set
with whom Mr.. Churchill's novel deals |
there are only two classes of people
those who are Mortified by the getting
of the divorce, and those who have
got divorced more or less frequently
and have nothing else to do save to
get drunk.
"Of course it would never do for
Mr.. Churchill to end the novel with |
the hero being brought home on q !