Evening star., 1935-01-02
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.

DUCKS BACK. BY Kate Mary Bruce
New York: The John Day Co.
One of the most hopeless Of the
multitude Of complications that upset
| the normal course of human relation
| ships Is the development Of q situation
which rivals the story Of the struggle
of the ugly duckling for survival
against the naughty supremacy Of
beauty. The fact that this sor,
of strife among humans is one
in which the feminine members
of society participate more gen.
orally does not brand 1t as phase
of personal envy and Jealousy, despite
the casual acceptance of that view by
/ the so-called sterner sex. Sometimes
yes. But more often the challenge is
taken up as a defensive move to save
from destruction loved ones whose fu-
ture and happiness is threatened by a
| form of Selfishness that is blind to
every consideration save the gratiflca-
ton of its own desires.
| Brains and ugliness against beauty
and selfishness is a theme often en-
ployed in fiction which reflects the
realities and the tragedies of life as
witnessed all too often in the hit-and-
miss fashion of marriage which has
grown out of the very institutions set
up by modern civilization as safe
guards against mistakes and the mis-
cries of disillusionment. Had Nell
Kent been endowed with little bit OF
physical beauty, and had Sara Hurst
received modifying quantity OF
brains. both might have enjoyed the
experience of life in abundant full
ness. But Nell was an ugly duckling
and Sara's beauty was OF type and
character that demands everything
and gives nothing.
Sara. like the famous Mana Of Emil
Zola, was in love with the glorious
physical creature reflected in her mir
ror. infatuated and intoxicated by
her own beauty, she spared no one
save herself in the qualification Of her
vanity and her desires. Always she
had taken what she wanted. After q
short acquaintance with Edward Kent
she wanted him, and against the wishe!
of his family she married him. Her
! brother. a man of fascinating and
compelling personality, and as ruth
less as his beautiful sister, also mar
ries into the Kent family.
1t is only a short time after these
hasty marriages that Nell, the ugly
duckling, sees the treacherous beauty
of Sara reaching into the heart OF her
family like the tentacles Of a deadly
octopus, slowly but surely drawing
them all to destruction. Courageously
and steadily Nell fights back. using
every weapon at her command to save
her loved ones from the disgrace and
humiliation OF desertion and divorce
Meanwhile she manages to become q
successful novelist and playwright, and
| to win the devotion of man whose
LOYALTY deserves a greater reward than
the nature of the story permits him
! to share.
The wreckage of lives and homes Is
not all, however, for through Nell
indefatigable efforts the salvage OF
much that is vital to human under
standing and happiness is accom-
plished. The characters are vividly
alive and the novel, from beginning
to end. moves smoothly and steadily
tn its climax. 1t is intensely inter-
esting and very much worth while.
BESIDE A NORMAN TOWER. BY
Mazo de la Roche. Boston: Little
Brown & Co.
In a predatory note to this volumt
] Miss de la Roche explains that mel
reason for writing story about tWt
| tinv toddlers is that all Of the books
about children are invariably con-
cerned With those of five years OF
| older. after they have been urged
moulded, dragged into some semoIanct
of adults" She says: L have asKee
myself if it is possible to write an In
teresting book about those mysterlou
beings who live in a grand tempestuou!
| world of their own into which We car
no more than enviously peer. Thl
story of two toddlers is an attemp
to answer that question"
Miss de la Roches effort can mos
assuredly be called an unqualified sue
cess from the point of view OF an,
one who has participated in the dali!
riot which a pair of healthy young
sters can somehow maintain continu
ously during the daylight hours o
their first five years Of life and awak
each morning with surplus of energ!
that fills their elders with wonde
and amazement. The work is no
really a story, but series of episode
in the lives of Gillian and Diggory
the former a girl who is old enough
to toddle about, talk and get int
mischief, and the latter boy not We
graduated from the restraining stral
of a perambulator.
Through the PAGES OF childhoo'
these two canter and race, making
their own play. engaging in the amuse
ments natural to their small being
and performing with almost f1endisl
glee tricks and pranks that gratif
the whims Of the moment. The boo
is generously illustrated with sketche
showing them in their moods of an
gelic innocence and beauty, in tn
midst of some of their mySteriousl
conceived deeds of naughtiness and u
their abandon of themselves to thei
feelings and reactions toward thei
elders and guardians and the materia
things that surround them. The bool
is delightfully."- entertaining and con
vincingly sympathetic in its diary
like account of the doings of two lit
tie cherub-imps who are typical o
all normal childhood.