Evening star., 1934-01-21
BRAZILIAN ADVENTURE BY Peter Fleming
New York: Charles Scribners Sons.

work house Walf, without even name that he
could surely call his own, but he was made a
K. C. B., received gold snuff box from Queen
Victoria, and was for time the most talked
of man in the world-all because he went in
search of Livingstone and found him Brazil
ian Adventure is the story search by a
group Of young Engshmen for Col Fawcett
who. with his son and another young man. dis
appeared in the Summer 1925 n
explored Central Brazilian Plateau and
never been heard of since. Peter Fleming,
interested reader Of the Agony Column of the
London Times, saw there an advertisement of
exploring and sporting expedition about to
start for Brazil to find Col Fawcett and applied
for a place in the expedition. After an ex-
change of letters, he found himself attached
as special correspondent for the Times. to
venture for which Rider Haggard might have
written the plot and Conrad designed the
scenery"
Peter Fleming and his companions in ad-
venture did not find Col. Fawcett-probaby
he is not to be found-but they traverSed
5000 miles of jungle and had experiences which
they will continue to tell about until they
old men, unless they have acquired the habit of
adventuring and replace older by newer haZ-
ards. They landed at Rio with "a heavy and
elaborate armament" and Immediately met the
Jungle which is at the cityS back door. But
their real encounter was postponed until they
had reached Sac Paulo by train. There they
saw the only snakes Of their whole jungle jour
ney-at snake farm Incaculable railway
service and unreliable motor conveyed
them, with many delays, as far as Leopoldina
and the frontier of Matto Crosse. Here.
the banks of the Araguaya River they cut loose
from even pretenSe of civilization
Mr.. Fleming knows how to weave the un-
usual happenings of their trek into the back
ground of the routine of boat travel, tramping,
camping eating and sleeping He describes
typical day which included leaky boats gun
ming for game in the jungle. which enlVened
the diet of rice and black beans; sweating un-
der the blazing sun Of MONDAY and shivering
in the deWs Of night. first-class intrigue
was provided by the comic opera villain, the
so-called Maj Pingle official leader of the ex-
pedtion, of whom the others began to be suS-
picous before they landed at Rio. 1t ended in
mutiny, of Fleming and others against Pingle,
and a of the two parties down the Ara
guaya River to Para, where the rebels hoped
to stop payment on the checks of the exped-
tionary funds in possession of Maj. Pingle.
This is thrilling tale, reminiscent of Joseph
Conrad. The rebels won. Mr.. Fleming a
journalist of only 26. recently emerged from
Manchuria to learn that Brazilian Adventure
had been chosen by the Book -of-theMonth
Club.
THE MOTHER BY Pearl S Buck New York:
The John Day Co.
THE nameess mother of this new novel of
Mrs Buck is any Chinese peasant mother,
tied to the soil and to her children, not realiz-
lot. The husband. the children, the old mother
in-law all also nameless. 1t is a universal
story. not connected with THE Good Earth"
and Sons but of the same quality. Types
they are, the people are not mere symbols;
they are intensely individual. The mother has
"a face not beautiful but passionate and good.
One would say. here is quck-tempered woman
but warm wife and mother and kind to an old
woman in her house" She is capable of taking
her part in a good quarrel with her husband,
the man. who is not willing to accept the
hard daily routine she is. Her day begins
earlier than his when she rises while the
others sleep, to let out the fowls and the pig
and the water buffalo, brought into the hut
for the night for fear of bandits, and to COOK
the morning rice for the family. Her day ends
later than his, for after long hours in the field
she returns to the hut to feed the fire with bits
of grass and luigs from her rapidly decreasing
store. cook the evening rice and to care for
her whimpering children, while the old woman
gabbles to her ceaselesSy. After his day IN
the fields the man goes to the inn and gam
bles while and the does not complain
too much about it, for she knows that men
cannot be expected to work as women do,
without amusement.
The man is such a one as heaven had
shaped for joy" and his impatience with the
dullneSs of his life grows, until one day ne
saunters off in the blue robe his wife has
made him from cloth he bought with her three
silver wedding cons-and never returns Ine
mother works on and feeds her three children
and the old mother-in-law and worries occa-
sionaly over the sore eyes of the little girl,
though she knows children never die of sore
eyes. She is proud before the other women OF
the hamlet and pretends that her husband has
only gone journey She pays letter writer's
in the town her village to send her letters
which appear to be from her husband, and, tir-
ing of the expense and complications, arranges
a final letter announcing his death. The sea-
sons pass and the mother is still not discon-
tented, though she works harder than ever. The
little maid becomes blind and is married to
feeble minded man, the only one who will take