Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-01
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. C.. M.
TAR: A Midwest Childhood. sher-
wood Anderson. Boni 4 Live

WOOD Anderson. Bonl q Lave
right.
The novel 10 a kind Of medicament
taken, as a rule. between dinner and
bedtime in easement of the real or
fancied aches of the day. And for
this reason it's measure Is that It
does. or does not, provide the relief
sought through its overlay of divert
Ing interest. In such reading there
IL no call for anything in the nature
of discrimination or other mental eff
fort. no demand for the exercise of
literary judgment. The applications
are purely personal TO the readers
mood, without reference to the au-
thor's purpose or to the quality of
his work.
1t Ia only with critics and students
and schoolmen that there is any pre-
tense of taking the novel with
enough Of seriousness to make 1t a
subject Of constructive study. And
from these, bent to the benefits of
tag and label, of pigeonhole and card
index, the 'isms" of the novel step out
formally into the open. Among these
studious ones there In an active and
engrossing business of setting them
apart-realism, naturalism, symbol
ism, romanticism. and many another
whatnot Of the academic outlook
upon the craft of the story writer.
1t is doubtful IL the novelist him
self ever consciously steps into one
or another of these built-in compart-
ments Of his art. At most, one takes
1t, he knows himself to be a part of
the general modern rebellion against
the 100 per cent fiction of the earliest
days of novel writing. He Is in re-
volt against the old blithe disregard
of consistency or piausibility. He
rejects the old hocus.pocus of pure
make.b believe in place of some anchor
age to valid appearances. He de-
spises the old Sleight.of- in in.
vention and turns himself to the
cultivation Of a genuine craft This
rebel recognizes new purpose in
the art of hction-a purpose that runs
along beside certain aspects of real
life. He attempts to reflect in GER,
tain measure and to interpret human
affairs by way Of new conception
of the use of the novel. But even
the boldest of these would deny in
their practice the implication lying
in the word realism For the
novelist. like the rest of us. knows
that truth, literal and absolute, Is
not for the open.
Sherwood Anderson Is a purveyor
Of realism by way of the novel. At
least this is what is commonly said
of him. But right here, in con-
that no can't tell the truth. He's
tried and tried. SO he says, but pure
truth Is not Ia him. He has hunted
diligently for 1t, under his desk. under
the bed. all UP and down the road.
but the rascal liz not to be found.
Fact mixed with fancy-oh. lots of
that; truth shaded off into half truth
plenty of that. But actual truth
1t In not to be had. And yet, with
Tar" 1t takes no time at all to
realize that here is something bigger
In reality than can he held in the
heart Of one child alone. For Tar Is
every child In the world of his years.
I. reading, am that little skirted boy
dress. her knees. for the blessed feel
of her bodily warmth. ! am Tar
looking with fearful heart down the
long ana empty road that must reach
clear across the world. i, too, feel
the loneliness of the darkening day
and the safe joy of the warm bed
from which I hear the bears growl
around the yard, and the winds cry
ing across the treetops in strange
and eerie wailings. And you. too,
reading, know that you are this little
boy of the Midwest. Loneliness Is
the keynote Of the story, as loneliness
in the common lot of little children.
Baby Adventures, these, In a place
new, strange. terrifying. We. read
ing here, hnd ourselves constantly
looking backward into our own child
hood, then running forward to catch
up again with Tar, who Is each OF
us in turn, as we'll as being Sher-
wood Anderson. And here is a story
by way Of which Its author stands
triumphant as the prepayment or
truth larger than any fact. unsup-
ported by imagination, can ever
project.
Around the boy Anderson spreads,
in a method no different. a picture
of life In the small communities OF
the nearer Western States not 80
long after the Civil War.
Here il a dramatic poet whose field
Ia that of the great average OF
American life. A picture that Is tsue
and beautiful, one that radiates from
the story Of a little boy. to his home
folks, to the villages roundabout, to
the outlying handsome. too, that pro-
jects the Midwest of so years ago
or thereabout Here Is q story that
greets the ear, as well as the eye
and the heart and the mind. One
reads II aloud. He has to. Cadenced
thouxhts emerge here on the wings
of fitting words to suit it's measure.
And the words step off in little COM
NAMES. These bands swing OFF to
the color and sounds Of life, gather
ing up the landscape. as 1t shaped
the occupations and thoughts OF the
ueople. gathering up the men and the
women in their strength and their
weakness, and-best of all-gathering
up the boy, Tar whom every reader
knows to be his own individual self.
as he used to be.
THE NOT IMPOSSIBLE SHE. Arthur
Wsigall. Frank-Maurice. Inc.
Another novelist who comes clearly
under the head Of the realist. Yet.
Arthur Weigall Is as different from
Sherwood Anderson as it Is possible
for two workers in the same field to
be. weigall 10 q scientist. while An
derson IL q poet both at heart and In
practice. Weigal at work is an
Archaeological digging up ancient cities.
At play he Is novelist. Yet, 1t Is
interesting to see how strongly the
sciantist has influenced the artist.
The one il exclusively devoted to the
record Of his senses, and to the pro-
nouncemants of rigid and uncompro-
missing logic. Eyes. ears. touch.
smell, taste--all take hand with
Arthur Weigall In his excavations.
So, when the man turns story teller
he is, first of all, about the clearest
example ina ginable of very raw
rea lism. Not only is there little use
Of the imagination. here. but there IL,
equally no modification Of the harsh
ness of sheer fact.
The story has to do with the life
of an English youth from his school
DAYS on through to a career identical
with the authors own, and, as Incl
dents in this career, two experiments