Evening star., 1936-03-07

ing to be to show the imprint made
upon the Jews by Christs teachings.
even though they were rejected.
In an epilogue Mr.. Belloc deals
briefly with the present state In Pal
estine, where, under the stimulus of
the Zionist movement and with the
encouragement of England, Jews are
taking up an increasing occupation.
This, he says, is in defiance OF the
bitterest opposition from the native
population, wherefore he seems to con-
clude that the time of peace is not
yet at hand in that troubled coun-
try and that, before too long, the
West may hear of other wars on
its eastern boundary.
It is all somewhat surprising, as
has been said. 1t adds nothing to
history and offers no particularly in
teresting Interpretation of facts al
ready familiar.
THE THINKING REED. BY Rebec-
ca West. New York: The Viking
Press.
WITH great fanfare and trumpet
w ing this work comes forth from
the presses and reviewers everywhere
are informed that it is "the new
novel; by Rebecca West. Not "a new
novel," observe. No, 1t is "the new
novel," There can be no such thing,
one assumes, as "a new novel; from
the glittering hand of Miss West.
Every creation of hers is new con-
tinent or. If you prefer, fresh hang
over, a not-so-br new world. But
new, anyway, with an incorruptible
shininess that is like the sun on the
headlights of a Rolls Royce or the
deafening glare of a proud bald
head. New, anyway. New. "The"
new. Not to be encountered any
where else. And, one inquiries, rude
ly, what of it?
Anyway, here it is at last, and the
paper and type are very nice. 1t is
the story of young modern female
in search of something. Maybe 1t
is love or, again. maybe it is her soul.
Anyway, it takes place in highly ex-
pensive surroundings, in the descrip-
tions Of which Miss West veritably
revels-if lady possessed Of SO CLASSY
a vocabulary can be said to do any
thing so immoderate as revel. And
it involves some amorous dalliance
which will probably recompense the
earnest intellectual for the purchase
price, and the rest Of it..
To this reviewer Miss West has
seemed a writer of extraordinary un-
evenness. She places a brilliant fln-
ish on utterly ordinary material: her
language-hailed far and wide for
its sophistication-is at times so
naively schoolgirlish as to be embar-
RAISING. Perhaps. at that. she is the
best sort of person to write a book
about a case Of nerves. And her
heroine, Isabelle, Is that. Thus "the"
new novel.
SOUTHERN ALBUM. BY Sara Haardt,
edited with q preface by H. l.
Mencken. Garden City: Double
day Doran & Co.
THIS book cannot escape being In
teresting, involving, as 1t does, the
personalities of the late Miss Haardt
and her husband. H. L. Mencken, and
setting forth in its preface the record
of the authors revolt against the pre-
vailing Southern sentimentalism OF
her early youth and her attempted
flight into literature to seek some
thing more substantial for mental
sustenance.
Looked at from these points OF view,
it becomes almost a personal docu-
ment and a story about the author as
well as by her; and, as such. it is not
only interesting, but touching. Miss
Haardt emerges from the pages not
too clearly, but still perceptibly. as a
person in war against an environment
that, Intellectually, offended her. but
which, esthetically and sentimentally.
seems to have been not only satisfac-
tory, but downright needful to her.
The struggle which the volume re-
veas, therefore, has slight but in
escapable flavor of tragedy.
Yet, taken just as collection OF
stories, it is unremarkable and In no
way rises above similar collections
recently published, chiefly by woman
writer's, purporting to set forth the
life of particular sections of the coun-
try or particular small towns.
There are II stories in the book,
some of which have been published
before. Mr.. Mencken explains the
title by saying, "At the time Of her
death Sara Haardt had two enter
prises under way. One was novel
The other was miscellany to be
called Southern Album an amalgam
of fiction and fact Among her
papers I find folder devoted to 1t,
with its table of contents drawn up
in full clippings of the stories and
articles that were to go into 1t ar
ranged in their places. But 1t needed
a great deal of reworking and there
were gaps that she had planned to
fill with new matter, so have been
unable to make 1t ready for publica-
tion. Instead, I have borrowed its
title for this collection Of her short
stories"
All the tales deal with the South,
in the manner of pointing out some
type Of conventionality which the au-
thor plainly considers to be geo
graphical. AS has been said, they
are unremarkable; they are not even
bad. They are perfect examples of
the neat writing and conventional
thinking conventional even in ITS
determination to rebeU common to
our more intelligent and less inspired
woman writer's. But for the sake Of
the spiritual portrait Of the author
which goes with them, one can rec
ommend the volume.
NIGHT PIECES. BY Thomas Burke.
New York: D. Appleton Century
Co.
THIS is q collection of 1s stories.
done with one exception In the
familiar manner Of Mr.. Burke; that
is, In q manner Of uncanniness that
sometimes comes OF and sometimes
does not. That one exception, IRON