Evening star., 1934-11-07
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
DARK WINDOWS. BY velia Ercole.
New York: .. Appleton Century
Co Tuc
Margaret Cermond.

Dhkth WANbSWo. ny tChe ma SoiC
New York: y. Appleton Century
Co., Inc.
! Stories Of family life, Of whatever
nationality their characters may be-
| long or wherever the scene of activity
may be located, invariably bear q
distinctive relationship to any COM
munity. Almost every type Of family
Is to be found wherever humanity Is
gathered into organized groups. And
OF all phases Of human life, that OF
the family Is the most interesting
Beneath every roof perpetual drama
Ia being enacted The circumstances
Of its unfoldment may be Of mo-
/ mentous Importance, or they may be
OF only moderate proportions, perhaps
even Of trivial nature, but the
! participants are intensely themselves
when in the family circle, and there
are few things In the world 50 inter-
esting to observe as the individual at
home.
Julie Purvis finds an abundance of
material tor observation and an over
supply OF unfathomable situations in
the home OF her mothers sister. Nine.
du Couedic. Julie was born In Aus
tralia and had grown to young wom-
anhood under the perfunctory affec-
tion OF father who had never quite
forgiven her for having come into
the world at the cost of her mothers
life. She had lacked none Of the
comforts and luxuries Of life, and
she had been well educated, but al
ways there had been in her heart a
loneliness and longing TO feel her
self 3 part Of a family. The death
OF her father leaves her homeless
| and almost penniless, so. she leaves
Australia with an overwhelming sense
of affection for the aunt and cousins
in France who have offered her a
welcome and about whom she has
woven, through the study Of some
old photographs found among her
mothers possessions, a fanciful life
| Of devotion and beauty.
Disappointment and disillusionment
are the rewards Julie receives from
| these strange relatives whose affec-
tion for her she had assumed to be
as genuine as that which she had in
her far-off homeland built up for
them. For selfishneSs is the domi-
nant characteristic of the family of
Nine. du Couedic, and where this
unlovely trait Of human nature pre-
walls there can be little of beauty or
OF happiness. Instead of the charm
ing, gentle aunt Of her imagination,
Julie finds an ugly and hard old wo-
man who rules her futile husband
and her rebellious family with an iron
hand
Who has not propped q collection OF
old photographs against q convenient
old bureau or dressing table and
manufactured realistic lives to match
the faces on the bits Of cardboard?
jules cardboard family had grown
out of her loneliness. and, like most
| visions born OF hunger for some
thing that seems to be unattainable,
! actuality brings disappointment. Julie
was not prepared to find that beauti-
ful Marthe despised her invalid hus-
band and daily wished for his death
so that she might join her lover.
Clotllde materialiZes into one of the
queer ones of the human race whose
ingrown bitterness against life has
taken the form Of intense and I'M
reasonable jealousy. The elder son
OF the family, physician, is never
unconscious Of his failure to succeed,
though he blames his mother and not
himself. And Guy, the youngest, with
whom Julie is inclined to fall in love,
Is worthless, rebellious and madly in
love with wholesome but poor
modiste far beneath the family's So
cial status.
A tremendous effort is made by
the strange and homeless Julie to
adjust herself to the new life, but
an understanding of French concepts
of relationship proves to be difficult
before experience brings comprehen-
sion.
For some indefinable reason the
story Just misses being a really power
full novel. 1t contains all of the ele-
ments for such an achievement and
1t Is well written. 1t is the narrative
Of intensely human character, for it
combines the extraordinary anomaly
Of the triumph Of a family and the
defeat Of its individual members. 1t
is story that is very much worth
while. but the dramatic quality needed
to make it a compelling portrayal of
life is lacking.
CHAFF BEFORE THE WIND. By
Sigurd Christensen. New York
Liveright Publishing Corporation.
The charac acteristic tenacitv of the
Scandinavian is the motif in this