Evening star., 1935-10-06

neither is it just tale of starving
! Why not write about the various kinds
of people we see here? If you did that
truthfully. it might be fair for an out
slider to say, This is real picture Of
life in one Southern State"
It is a hammered statement but
an extremely comprehensive one. It
takes the author out of the beagle
class He is not following one line of
inquiry; he is not discovering or ad-
vocating. He is not really writing
about Virginians at all He is writing
about men and women who live in
Virginia. He is amused, urbane and
dispassionate His book will be agree
able reading for any sophisticated per-
son.
1t is not a novel. 1t is a series OF
sketches. The University of Virginia,
v. M. l., a textile strike in Danville,
Rotary chapters, public school officials,
such literary personalities as Ellen
Glasgow and James Branch Cabell,
plain citizens in many walks of life, a
governor and Bishop Cannon-all the
aspects of life implicit in these phe-
nomena and individuals are treated
by Mr. Meade with mellow impartial
ity. His delineations are none the less
telling because he is not undertaking
to discover or expose. They may. how
ever, be somewhat more convincing.
A book that makes good reading is
reason enough in itself. "I Live In
Virginia" is that But it is also more
than that. 1t is an expression of spirit
that is commonly assumed to be rare
in the South. 1t is liberal, without
being fanatical; it is humorous, with
out being evil-tempered; it is affec-
tionate without being sentimental. On
the whole, it expresses an enlightened
point of view which would be creditable
to any time or country. The seekers
for the picturesque, the glamorous and
terrible in Dixie have not usually re-
corded anything so level and so still.
But then, as he says of himself, Mr..
Meade lives in Virginia.
FORTUNE. BY Robert Reynolds. New
York: william Morrow & Co.
A S THE Fall novels begin to come in
one is impressed forcibly with the
present tendency of our writer's to pro-
duce books-not about men and women
but about periods of history, sections
of the country or philosophical ideas.
Some of these works are excellently
done. They have form and balance and
polish. They have story and action.
But scarcely any of them have char
acters-that is, characters that are
more than names or, at best, types.
1t is as If the authors, having COM
pleted the hard research needed fer
the creation Of the chosen period or
place in print, or having duly tested
the philosophic idea, have felt that
the characters who move through the
scene are relatively unimportant.
The result is not novel that is less
readable, but one that is less memora-
BILE. It is Becky Sharp who has kept
Vanity Fair alive-it is not Thack-
eray's depletion Of London society.
And people remember Sam Weller VINO
have forgotten that "Pickwick Papers"
contains scathing expose Of English
courts and debtors prisons. 1t is to be
feared that readers, being human, like
human beings best.
The present novel, Fortune" is an
example Of this type of scene building.
It is a book about the years preceding
the depression and the depression it
self. Its characters are young men and
women in various walks of life but
connected by the economic ties Of their
town. There is the country club group.
the college group, the business men and
the working family. They are borne
along on the wave Of prosperity to
commit such follies as cannot be sup
| ported In the sobriety Of lean purses.