The daily worker., 1934-05-14
TIE LAND OF PLENTY, BY
Robert CantwelL New York:
Farrar and Rinshart. $3.50
Reviewed BY
PHILIP RAHV

heNieNed OF
PHILIP RAHV
THE publication of The Land of
Plenty makes it plain that in
the most important literary form of
modern times, in the realm OF the
novel, revolutionary literature in
America is fast oUtstripping any
thing that the bourgeoisie can still
lay claim as its own. The class
struggle in culture has reached the
stage Of intensity where capitalism
can no longer maintain its grasp on
the most vigorous and clear headed
talents nurtured in its Intellectual
atmosphere. Today most Of the
young noveists who have been
hailed IS the hope Of American lit
erature have taken their stand With
Communism. And these Young
writer's are producing work whose
social and artistic merit is far be
yond their previous achievements.
Robert Cantwell's first novel,
Laugh and Lie Down, though strik-
ing a distinctly original note, was
a statement of despair Had ne
adhered to the snsrchic World-fesl-
ing Of this first book, Csntwel would
have gone the way Of Faulkner and
hemingway. But together with a
number Of other writer's he turned
his back on the past and its con-
fusions. Since then his writing has
reflected mounting realization Of
the meaning Of the revolutionary
movement. His critical articles and
reviews extended firm support to
MARKHAM theology in literary crit
icism; and now, with the publica-
ton Of his novel Of a Western fac
tory town, he emerges as one Of the
major revolutionary novelists in the
country.
The book is full Of original con-
cepticn5 shaped to express class in
sights. It opens with the sentence,
Suddenly the lights went out" and
at once we plunge into the lives Of
the workers on the night-shift Of
a door factory in the Puget Sound
region. The current has failed and
the darkness becomes tense with the
unvoiced griefs Of the workers who
are being bounded by Carl, the fore
man and efficiency expert who car
ries a stop-watch around in the
palm of his hand. The unusual sit
dation provides an opportunity for
the maturing of all the accumulated
fears and hatreds. Hagen and Win
ters clash with the foreman. The
workers gather outside the factory,
speaking their minds, sensing their
growing solidarity and their readi-
ness to strike. An accident occurs,
and the foist-man is dragged from
under a log with his legs crushed.
Hagen and his supporters are fired,
and soon the story sweeps across
the physical boundaries of the fac
tory, carrying the whole town with
it. A strike is called. Once again
We read Of the heart breaking round
OF police provocations, beatings, and
hungry bellies. The police shoot a
scab by accident, and the blame is
pinned on the strikers. The perfect
alibi for reign of terror has been
found. The last chapter describes
the massed assault on the factory.
where the workers are entrenched.
FANTWELL'S novel is alive with
v a multitude Of characters, both
proletarian and bourgeois. There is
Hagen, the old worker, who sees
only his immediate boss, the fore
man, unable to relate his misery to
the larger forces dominating the
situation; his son johnny to whom
the strike is real education, and
in whose coming to class conscious
ness the real center of gravity Of
the book is to be found. In Walt
Connor, the college boy in the fac
tory. who dreams of social successes
and who sells out his comrades for
a soft JOB. the author had drawn
an unforgettable image Of a petty
bourgeois, reminiscent in many ways
of Ramon in The Shadow Before.
The class viewpoint is brought out
sharply through Johnny's conscious