The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-27

try. You finish the book feeling
mouldy and damp and you are
damn glad to pick up copy Of the
Daily Worker and see there's sun
still in the heayep&
lnAHLBERG knows what he's about;
" he is master Of this sort of tale.
But he has his faults His violent
imagery ut times bends the story to
serve the ends of aestheticisn.
Some Of his figures Of speech are
shocking in themselves but they
clutter up the progress Of the story.
/ Often too you feel that Dahlberg
himself has a bit too much love for
the introvert. He all but says at
times that So-and-So was disgust
ingly extroYert." In the world OF
the Swamp, Of the petty bourgeois
which cannot make up its mind. the
introvert is the norm: the extrovert,,
the sport, the bastard.
Dahlberg's Jews are Jews with
money, or at least near money. They
are the antithesis to the Jews With
out money Of Mike Gold Mikes .
Jews had the abundance Of life, the
| teeming life Of all the poor-life
! flashed even though there was hun
| ger and daily misery. But DAHL
berg's Jews-they are typical Of sl1
/ the weak and the cowardly of the
| middle CLASSES who refuse to 60
anywhere but to their doom Mixes
Jews will Join the Communist Party,
will fight the Fascists tooth and nail.
| Dahlberg's Jews can only take it
and sing Eli Eli. They can't fight. ,
| because they can't understand, they
can't believe. Like Regina. they
moan, whats the matter with me,
/ can't believe-I don't know what
to believe any more And this IS
the lot of all those of the middle
classes who cannot cut their way to
support the revolution.
Dahlberg. feel. commits two
major mistakes Of omission.
First. what of those from the
middle classes who come to the rev.
| olution? Those who fight bravelv@
side by side with their proletariana'
allies? What Of the fellow travellers
who DO make the grade-who escape p
the Swamp? There are manv and
there will be many more. Dahlberg
/ fails to notice OF these: his book.
| tolls away like funeral bells. There
is no ray of hope for any middle
class character in it. Dahlberg shoves
them violently over to the soaps
box and says to them, Listen, lis
ten. and you'll understand. And
you'll be saved" But it's not that
simple He doesn't make the world
of the proletsriat real enough TO p
his characters. He does not realize
his characters have unique prob
lens, special demands. He does not =
give his people even that break
which should be coming them.
CECONDLY, Dahlberg in failing to-
y introduce anybody with backbone. .
leaves his reader with disgust for
| his characters. Dealing only with
this type Of Jew he leaves himself
wide open to charges Of anti-scn- ~
itism. The weakness with which be-
endows his characters is the weak r
ness inherent in all middle Glasses
regardless Of nationality. To many
! ignorant of this, it seems Dahlbarg =
means only the Jewish people. He
| has failed to show, or even connote, 81
the other Jews: the proletarian
Jews. those who can fight, who are
building Biro-Bidjan and have
forgotten how to chant at the Wall
| ing Wall. @
! r-.,-
The working class knows that to
win it, must win allies first. Dahl
berg forgot this. fear the middle
] class Jew reading the book will feel
| the author has only hatred for him.
that he does not want to win him
to the side of the revolution. But
| there are many Boazes, many Mel
ameds, many Reginas who do and
will find their way to the proletariat, !
And they must be given a hand.
Dahlberg refuses to give them that
| hand.
The Socialist Forward leaped al
this and took up the cudgels for
the middle classes against this
Communist Jewish novelist. Dahl
/ berg" Dahlberg must realize we
scorn no allies, so long as they will
fight with us against the enemy.
However, with its sins Of omission,
this is the first Of Dahlberg's novels
which definitely commits the author
to our side. This accounts for the :
conspiracy of silence with which
the enemy press has received his
book. Dahlberg has chosen and in
him we have won a fighting ally,
a man of powerful talents.
True there is morbidity and he :
writes with scowl. but association
with the class destined to win the
world, will remold this recruit of ].
/ ours from the senescent middle
class. Dahlberg, in this book; =
stands fearlessly against Fascism.
against war; he has put his cards
/ on the table. The bourgeois hate
/ to lose even one Of their army And
they revenge themselves by what
ever weapon they can lay hands on. :
And this same Dahlberg whom the
bourgeois critics a few years ago
we're greeting with cries of genius
is today greeted with silence.
Against writer's their best weapon
is the blacklist.
But the proletariat is building its
own press. creating its own critics,
establishing its own publicity media.
1t will slash through to reach the
] truths that the rrnletarisn writers