The Washington times., 1934-01-30
True To
Type
Joyce and Lewis Share
Aonors of Week
BY GILBERT SELDES

Sinclair Lewis is the event Of
the week, the free publication OF
James Joyce'S ulysses" in
America has to be noted as the
event of the year. I have writ
ten perhaps too much about
this book; there is certainly no
need for me to 'eview it now.
But I am appalled, to see that
on the jacket of he very hand
some volume, beautifully de-
signed and printed and bound
CRandom House), 1 am quoted
from a review written about
10 years ago. I am not appalled,
ny an excess OF enthusiasm eX-
presse at the time; the re-
verse. Like Warren Hastings, I
am astonished at my own mod
Grafton. "To my mind" I
wrote, ULYSSES is one Of the
! most significant and beautiful
works Of our time"
Mealy-mouthed words, weasel
words, little, timid words intro
duced by an apologetic ito my
mind" I am sure 7 said other,
better, bolder things about
Ulysses" I must have given
the impression at least that for
weeks had lived in that book
as I had lived in no other since
! I read WA and Peace; I re-
member definitely saying that
, every page in the book is a tri-
. butte to the grandeur and beauty
Of the language in which all of
our deepest thoughts and high
est aspirations had been record
ed. I denied that the book was
ugly or black pesSimism. I felt
it to be a great affirmation to
J everything in life-Ehe good and
the evil. I still feel so.
Small Story-Great Gusto
Mr.. Lewis new book, Work
Of Art" doubleday, Doran), is
not ambitious in scope. Since
winning the Nobel Prize Mr..
Lewis has, perhaps Intentionally.
written small, and his story of
an American hotelkeeper who
wanted to create a perfect hotel
and wondered whether he
wouldn't, thereby, be as much
Of an artist as his brother, who
wanted to create a perfect SON.
net. is a little story filled out
with che authors zest for hu-
man beings and his great gusto
for the details of common life,
business and adventure.
The artist in this story is a
wastrel and a cadger-and a
bad artist. He begins as a
. youth who would be superior,
. his middle period is all hack
work and borrowed money. his
end is in Hollywood--and he is
a charade of a writer, not a
writer. But he serves Lewis
prime purposes, which is to
show the character of his hotel
man, his decency and his devo-
ton. in high relief That Lewis
has rounded on his own Babbitt
is a phenomenon; but Arrow
smith" will remain his best
novel. so far. because in ARROW
smith" he was not rounding on
anything-he was inspired to
create a character.
Compare O'Neill
Nevertheless, full as this new
book is of the business of man
aging a hotel. you will not
escape it and you will not be
bored. because Lewis has vast
appetite for whatever humanity
does. You will find a parallel
turn in Eugene O'Neill's days
Without End" (Random House).
in which the author of "Dy-
namo" brings peace to a tor
tured soul at the foot of the
cross. But you will not find
the SAVIOR of human life, its
smells and sounds and tastes
and textures. 1t might be a
good idea for Mr.. O'Neill to try
writing a novel in which he
would be compelled to put in
something more than the log
ical diagram of his characters.
It is being said that Lewis
always loved Babbittry and
O'Neill was always religious.
and good psychoanalysts have
always suspected that hatred
lies so close to love as to be
nearly identical. If you stand
at the North Pole, every direc-
ton is southerly, I understand;
and if our writer's were at the
North Pole or up in the inf
mite, you could always say that
what they despised, they really
adorsed.
A Sea- Change
Nevertheless. it is interesting
to note that as Mr.. Mencken
retires from editing. the two
file-leaders of active rebellion
against our common life turn a
sharp corner and are not afraid
to give consolation to those
whom they have hurt most.
There is, you gather from
O'Neill, a pass so narrow that
man must appeal to power
beyond himself to come through;
there is, Lewis suggests, a de-
cent behavior in common life
which is not corrupted by all
the foolish pretentions of busi-
ness. Neither one has yet sug-
gested that the poor, common,
suffering. silly humanity, which