Evening star., 1934-12-16
In the World of Books
BY SARAH BOWERMAN

self. When Kufalt breaks away from
this environment Of Serfdom and
attempts to start typing agency of
his own he Is arrested on the charge
Of having stolen his machines. Other
attempts to earn living are thwarted
by the suspicion Of all the respect
able, a handicap added to that of
general economic stagnation. Finally
Kufalt again resorts to crime, becomes
q purse snatcher, shortly allows him
self to be taken by the police, and
with relief finds himself again In
prison, where he can abandon effort
and accept defeatism. Hans Fallada
shows in this, as in his earlier novel,
his sympathy with the lesser bourgeois,
whose position in modern society is
far worse than that Of the organized
worker" and his scorn for in
trenched and hypocritical respect
ability. "The World Outside" is more
sordid and hopeless than Little Man,
What Now?", for there is nothing In
it to tighten the gloomy picture as the
persistent courage Of Pinneberg's wife
does in the earlier story.
CONCERT PITCH. BY Theodore
Benson. New York: The Mac
milan Co.
A PICTURE Of back stage life, with
its hectic fascination for its par
ticipants, as long as the fascination
lasts; its loves, hatreds, jealousies,
loyalties and zest. The chief char
acters are Val Mellon, her husband
Johnnie, who has arrived as a highly
paid star. so that family finances are
no longer near the dole line, and the
not particularly good dancer, Alber-
tina, to whom Val is mistakenly kind.
Movement Is the one quality su-
premely possessed by the narrative
and partners are changed all around
before the end. The author Is the
daughter Of Baron Charnwood.
THE GREAT MR.. KNIGHT. BY
Dorothy Whipple. New York: Far
rar & Rinehart.
THE Blake family is fairly con-
tented in its standardized semi
detached house in the London suburb,
The Grove, except for the periodical
threat Of old Simpson to sell the
works, which would mean that
Thomas would be out Of job. Then
Lawrence knight, director Of in
Vulnerable companies, chairman of
the immense corporation known as
Algoods, creator Of Fairbay, that in
credible bungaloid growth by the sea"
and recent purchaser Of a country
house near Trentham. slips on the
railway station stairs and drives his
elbow into the stomach Of Thomas
Blake-a literal stroke Of luck for
Thomas, who clutches the millionaire
and saves him from falling. From
gratitude and perhaps other motives
more instructive. Lawrence Knight
raises the Blake family to dizzy
heights Of prosperity only little
lower than his own. But the heights
arc too precarious and the path to
them has been crooked, so there Is q
bad fall for both the leader and the
Cd6C4 4O44OWCls oOb1k llC SICdI MI.
Knight" and Dorothy Whipple's
earlier novel, "Greenbanks," illustrate
the power Of good writing to enlist
readers interest in q set Of char.
acters. whatever the events which
constitute the plot. We should enjoy
following the lives Of Thomas and
Celia Blake and their children, Freda,
Ruth and Douglas. under any circum-
stances.
A PIN TO SEE THE PEEPSHOW. BY
F. Tennyson Jesse Garden City:
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
r TENNYSoN JESSE is so versatile
that she has never established
a characteristic genre in her fiction.
Tom Fool" is sea epic, "Moonraker"
Is feminine-vagabond tale Of an ad-
ventures in Burma. THE Lacquer
Lady" is an Oriental miniature. "A
Pin to See the Peepshow" is the story
Of Julia Startling, wife of Herbert
Startling, in present-day London, who
by stages unrecognized by herself pro-
crosses from a normal girlhood to the
rides to school on the top of q tram
she feels that she Is having her daily
adventure. All the noises of grinding
brakes, street cries, changing bells
and rumbling traffic delight her as
the orchestra of Greater London"
She feels herself as mot only part,
but the very central core Of life. I'm
possible to imagine anv life in which
she would not, at some time, share"
Later she marries Herbert Startling
without enthusiasm, chiefly to escape
from her fearful mother and her
organizing aunt. The tragic course
OF disappointment, infidelity, crime is
traced with such skill in the descrip-
ton Of shifting emotions that Julia
grows more and more real as her In
herent weakness becomes terribly evi-
dent. The final scene, in which Julia,
between nightmare dozings and hor-
rible awakenings, awaits the hour