Evening star., 1934-03-07
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.

Margaret Cermond.
MANHATTAN LOVE SONG. BY
Kathleen Norris. New York: Dou-
bleday. Doran & Co., Inc.
A four -cornered love affair, trans
ported from a California college
campus to New York City. just when
the economic plight of the country
j had come to be recognized as a
reality and not as q quickly passing
period of instability, is the theme
for this warm-hearted story Of life
by one of Americas best loved
writers. The same highly commenda-
bic motive of unfaltering courage in
the face of adversely which has made
the novels of Mrs. Norris welcome in
| every home prevails also in this one.
Fanny Furness, Madge Rountree,
Chris Thring and Mack Wise. with
| little in common that could have
made them more than acquaintance
had they lived in the same town, be-
came congenial friends in the early
days of association at college, and
long before the year of graduation
| the quartet had welded into strong
and healthy friendship in which the
share and share alike of good COM
radeship was the dominant note.
1t was in this spirit of comradeship
that they pooled their small resources
and went to New York. They knew
that times were bad, but as Fanny
so truthfully put it, the depression
world was the only one they knew, for
they had been too young when they
entered college to know about the years
Of prosperity, and they must accept
the world they knew about just as
few years before the new generation
had known nothing about a world not
afflicted by war.
| Their arrival IN the big town was
terrifying to all of them except Fanny,
and was marked by tragedy as well.
The address Of the boarding house
| to which they had been recommended
by friend of Madge's turned out to
be a hole in the ground, and tired,
hungry and grimy with train and
| travel dirt, they spent the first night
| in the hotel nearest to the place where
| the boarding house should have been.
Next morning they discovered that the
| fire escape had made their rooms
very convenient for burglars, and they
left the hotel almost pennileSs.
| Madge was the most fortunate of
| the quartet, for she had a monthly
allowance. Mack had letter Of in
PRODUCTION to a broadcasting company
with which he hoped to get singing
assignment, and Chris had slight
Acquaintance with a law firm which
might give him a job. Fanny had
nothing for a starter except an un-
| conquerable spirit Of adventure and
an unfaltering faith in her ability to
find work.
When the four Of them came to-
gether again at the close of the first
day only Fanny had met with success.
The contacts which the others were
to make had failed beauSe the individ-
uals they were to call upon had gone
away over the week end, but Fanny
\ had used her wits and had secured
| q job as sorter in the Emanuel Sal
| wage Shop, which, she explained, was
an establishment to which rich people
sent their worn-out clothing for poor
people to purchase.
OF course, they all eventually find
employment and manage to exc out
an existence. but only Fanny is
exuberant. She had ventured into
the big city with the determination
to beat it, and she loved the struggle.
Before the end Of a year, however.
| troubles fall upon the little group
and all because they are in love.
Madge is in love with Mack Mack
| is in love with Fanny. Fanny Is
| desperately in love with Chris. and
Chris is madly IN love with Madge.
The others have openly displayed
their affections since the last days
in college. but Fanny has discreetly
hidden her devotion for Chris. Madge
finally persuades Mack to elore with
her. and Chris. with broken heart.
ships to Australia Only Fanny is
! left to battle New Yorks millions and
earn a living.
Eventually Chris returns to New
York. Ill and broken in body and in
| spirit. Fanny miraculously finds Kim
and nurses him back to health They
are married and find happiness III
their rooms In the Slum quarter Until
Madge and Mack return Madge has
! decided not to marry Mack ard not
| knowing that Chris has married
! Fanny she has come to New York
! to marry him. She resents his mar
riage to Fanny and determines to
get him anyway. Difficulties pile up
around Fanny to an alarming degree,
but her high courage never weakens,
and she fights the battle to hold her
happiness with the same spirit which
has enabled her to beat New York.
Who wins and how the victory is
| accomplished makes a story which
no one who loves the wholesome and
intensely realistic novels of Kathleen
Norris will want to miss.
- x X
CONE OUT OF THE PANTRY. BY
Alice Duer Miller. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co.
| Here is a collection of five short
stories which deal largely with house
maids and buffers who by some stroke
of fate have been dropped from posi-
tions Of high estate into the category
Of back-stairs menials in homes of
ast-diminishing type of Americans
who have not yet learned that aris-
| tocracy passed out of existence in
this country a quarter of a CEN
tury ago.
The initial story, which gives the
volume its title, is that of a young
English lord. who becomes a servant
in the household of a wealthy New
Yorker after being picked up hungry.
cold and almost penniless by former
servant in his ancestral home in Eng
land. Having come to America with
collection of pictures to sell to save
the old estate, his. success turns to
failure when the bank in which he
has deposited the money fails to open
at the end Of the bank holiday. His
position as q servant under his own
servant of former days makes an in
teresting situation, and the compli-
cations which arise when he and his
brother, who has come to this country
20 an h fo11 iy, 1nuo xryttI loa