The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-03
''LOnigan'' Sequel Is the
Best Achievement
of Young Writer
THE YOUNG MANHOOD OF STUDS
LONIGAN, by James T. Farrell.
The Vanguard Press. $3.50.

Reviewed BY EDWIN ROLFE
JAMES T. FARRELL is a young
> Chicago novelist who during the
past five years has risen rapidly into
the ranks of the outstanding young
writer's OF fiction today. Almost COM
pletely unknown when his first book,
Young Lonigan," was published he
continued to write short stories which
appeared in such periodicals as the
American Mercury" Story" THE
New Review" etc. His second novel,
Gas House McGinty," published
last year, revealed two important
factors in Farreii's growth. 1t es-
tablished, through a very expert
mental but nonetheless thorough
treatment Of group Of workers en-
ployed at the Continental Express
Company offices, the authors iden-
tification with his own rich and fer
tile proletarian background. More
over, 1t marked the actual begin
ming Of Farrell's leftward growth.
His new novel, It seems to me, Is
his outstanding achievement to date.
In 1t we can observe the end of his
youthful experimental" period and
the beginning Of a genuinely mature
approach to his material.
Begins Where First Novel Ended
''The Young Manhood of Studs
Lonigan" begins where Young L,oni-
gan" ended. We get our first glimpse
Of William Lonigan on sunny
April day, walking cockily along the
street, his shoulders Slouched in the
disdainftIl deyil-may- attitude of
his seventeen years. The boy is APP
preaching manhood; he has had a
quarrel with the old man and he
fears another when he gets home.
'He shrugged his shoulders, because
Wilson was going to declare war any
one Of these days, and maybe the
war would get him out of IT,"
He watches the "punks' the
younger kids in this tough Chicago
neighborhood- playing at war In the
trenches among the tin cans and re-
fuse Of city lot, and ne wants to
join them. But the realization that
he is seventeen years old. on the
verge of manhood, keeps him from
entering the mOCK-War.
War is declared. Several Of the
older fellows in the gang enlist;
Studs and two of his buddies try
to make the minimum army weight
by eating bananas (Which they steal
from an italian puShcart vender)
and drinking water. But all they
achieve are painful bellyaches which
keep them In agony for period Of
days.
This is Studs first disappointment
the first of 3 long series Of frustra-
lions which mount gigantically as
Farrell applies the keen strokes Of
his unexcelled detail. Studs Lonigan
plays football-it is dirty football.
He gloats over the deaths Of several
Negroes In q "race-war"; he wants
a girl Of his own, like Paulie Hag-
gerty has, only he doesn't want to
get married. Studs gets drunk with
the gang regularly, visits the bawdy
houses the dance halls where his
pals pick up young and unsuspect-
ing girls. And through It all, he
feels the pointlessness Of his life.
He wants to better himself. He
makes countless resolutions to keep
fit, to stay hard and clean; he Joins
Y. M. c. A. to keep trim by swim
ming. We read Of one scene at the
"Y" pool, where Studs and COM
panion wise-crack to each other
about the Demonstrating, sissihed
Young clerks. We never see him at
the "Y" pool again. He goes to
church, listens to Father Shannon
deliver a two-fisted. herman, rip