Evening star., 1935-05-19
GREY GRANITE. BY Lewis Grassic
Gibbon. New York: Doubleday,
Doran & Co.

Doran & Co.
T EWIS GRASSIC GIBBON, the nov
elist; J. Leslie Mitchell, archeol-
ogist. one and the same, died at the
age Of 80 shortly after finishing this
final volume of his trilogy, the first
volumes of which are Sunset Song"
and Cloud Howe" In Great Britain
this trilogy is recognized as probably
the best representation of modern
Scottish life which fiction has pro-
duced and as placing Gibbon in the
front rank of British novelists. A
woman. strong and unyielding before
fate, Chris, is the center of each of
the three novels. In Sunset Song"
her early love, Evan Tavendale, leaves
her at Kinraddie Farm, goes to the
war and dies on Flanders Field. She
is left with her son Evan. with whom
she moves to the small town of Seq
get, whose minister she marries. Rob-
ert Colquohoun is a fragile mystic, a
zealot of man, too intense and too
sanity for the town or the times.
Chris helps him in all the practical
ways she can devise, but cannot fol-
low him along his road to martyrdom
His death ends CLOUD Howe"
With the beginning of Grey Gran
ite," Chris and her son Evan, now
10, sit down in the manse parlor after
the funeral and take stock of their
assets, which amount to almost
nothing. Evan dismisses his univer-
sity education with a word and tells
lis mother that he already has a job
in a smelling mill in the neighboring
city Of Duncairn. Chris sells her few
household goods, goes with him and
secures hard-working partnership
in boarding house. Duncairn has
been identified by British reviewers
as Dundee or Aberdeen. but Mr.. Glib
hon says in predatory note that it
is entirely his own creation The in
terest in Grey Granite" is divided
between Chris, her work in the board
Ing house and her association with Ma
Cleghorn and the boarderS and Evan
and his associations in the mill. The
brief characterizations of the board
ers are excellent writing. Evan, after
few tentative experiences, throws in
his lot with the rebellious workers in
the mill and helps to organize strikes
Through the hardships and the doubts
which they share Girls and her son are
orawn very close together. In his
three novels Mr.. Gibbon has por-
trayed Scottish life and pointed out
Its problems Of today in the coun-
try, the small town and the city. AS
regards vigor Of treatment, no prefer
ence can be made Of one over the
others; but because of the charm of
setting and the youth of Chris, Sun
set Song" Is the pleasantest.
JOHN o. THE GREEN. BY Jeffery
Farnol. Boston: Little, Brown &
Co.
HERE Is a Robin Hood tale, full of
the action, courage and high mo-
tives which we love in a medieval
romance. King Tristan, "a smallish,
high-shouldered black-visaged man,
whose deep-set eyes showed bright as
the gems that sparkled in cap and
girdle." was cripple, but his ambition
was to unite into one kingdom under
his rule all the neighboring kingdoms
and duchess King Arthur ambition.
The petty rulers whom he designed to
make his vassals were strangly averse
to the plan. 1t had not succeeded
until, on the verge Of the execution
for outlawry Of John O. the Green and
his band, King Tristan granted par
don on the condition of aid in his plan
John was, of course, really nobleman
who had taken to outlawry because Of
injustice which he had suffered. When
he reached the first duchy which he
was to win for the King, with chain
srnor under his minstrels costume,
he found that its ruler was lady,
young one, a mere girl. Nothing need
be said about the conclusion of this
tale-it can be foreseen early in the