Evening star., 1933-03-05
'By Sarah c.. BoWerman
Bernard Shazv'S s Latest Allegory
The Reporter Who "Went Azcay
for AgvhiIe' THE Balkans
and the Russian ReJ0lutim.

FLIGHT FROM TERROR. BY Alya
Rachmanova. New York: The John
Day Co.
DROBABLY because literary hoaxes
have been common of late and be-
cause tales of the Russian Revolution
are easy to exaggerate, the American
publishers present with this autobiog-
raphy of a 21-year-old Russian girl
afiidavits signed, respectively, by the
German publisher who originally pub
hshed the book, saying that he has seen
the diary on which it Is based and be-
lieves it to be authentic, and by Alya
Rachmanova herself. declaring that her
story Is 3 true record OF actual ex-
perience. The author made her escape
from Russia some years ago and Is now
living in Germany. The introduction Is
by Gleb Botkin, son of the late physi-
clan to the Russian Imperial Court, who
was involved as a source OF tnforma-
ton in the case Of the supposed Grand
Duchess Anastasia. He describes this
diary as 80 obviously, so grippingly
true that for Russian 1t Is impossible
to read 1t without living every word
Of it,"
1t is a tale Of horror and brutality,
of carnage, pestilence and death. The
personal experiences of the narrator
and her knowledge and rumors Of what
went on about her mingle as in a bad
dream. Her sadistic friend. Griselda,
whom she expects to see in mad
house, becomes q member OF the
Tcheka, dresses in mems clothes and
revels in the killings in which she par
ticipates. Epidemics Of typhus and
cholera make the black picture blacker.
Alya herself has q severe case OF typhus
and while she Is in the isolation bar
racks a peasant girl, whose head has
been shaved in accordance with the
regimen for typhus patients. commits
suicide because, she shrieks, MY Vanya
won't marry me without my braid"
When the students in an experimental
psychology seminar are asked wherein
the meaning of life lay for women" many
Of them say that they want to work for
the good Of humanity; others say that
life holds no meaning and that they
are merely waiting for a suitable OPP
portunity to commit suicide. Through
1t all, the girl Alya. II when the story
begins, holds to her belief in life, her
wish to live fully. ito remain a per-
sonality, too and devote myself to study
and learning" If this may be accepted
as a true story, it is another remark
able personal document of the Russian
Revolution.
THE ROOT AND THE BoUGH. BY
Francine Findley. New York: Al
fred H. King.
A T the time of the production here
n Of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Be-
comes Electra" some New Englanders
were heard to complain that Eugene
ONeill did not occasionally select some
other section of the country than New
England as the locale for his degenerate
families. Mary wilkins has depicted in
her stories many dour, sour New Eng
landers, but Martha Ostenso has placed
her creations of the same type in the
Middle West. Francine Findley assigns
her Burdett family to upstate New
York. where bleak and dark, family
rolling" landscape. "smudged with a
growth Of stunted pines and frs, "
greets Celia's Southern eyes as she looks
from her bedroom window on the day
OF her husbands funeral. She has
come across the country from California
to the farm homestead established by
stern Adam Burdett, because she has
no other refuge. She is welcomed with
serious acceptance as the widow Of the
doctor son David, but there are no
kisses. no effusions over her or her baby
Merry and no one sees in her grief and
WEAKNESS any reason why she should
have coffee in bed the next morning
instead Of coming down promptly to
breakfast, so that the kitchen may be
cleared at the usual time.
Adam and SarA Burdett have had 13