Evening star., 1936-08-01
BOOK A MEDIEVAL ROMANCE
Dorothy Thomas Achieves Mixed Results in Story Of Depression
and Its Effect Upon Md-Western Family "Clansman"
Cever1y Done-Other Recent Books Reviewed.
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

UndSet. New YORK: Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.
THE beautiful and violent world Of
Nine Undset's medieval ro-
mances Is recreated here in the short,
tragic tale of Vigdis, Gunnar's daugh-
ter. Vigdis loves and then hates: her
hatred becomes a patient passion for
revenge. After many years her re-
venge is realized. She is ready then
to die So simple in its essence is the
rich vital tale which makes this utterly
absorbing book.
The reader who is familiar even to
o slight degree with the saga will
recognize the influence which has
shaped this book. The simplicity OF
the motives-love. hate, revenge-the
dlrectness of attack the use of rare.
tender touches to contrast with and
relieve the starknesS of the outline, all
these are used with mastery in Gun
mars Daughter" And. like the SagaS
themselves, this book contrives to
have a breathleSs. poignantly personal
interest for the reader. escaping easily
from the distance of its time and be-
coming not only plausible 10 the mod
ern mind. but familiar to it and sat-
isfying To that extent. perhaps. We
may all be Savages-or. perhaps. again
II is that we are merely logical and
find that love, hatred and revenge an
swer the laws Of cause and effect
somewhat better than any sophiStry.
Be that as 1t may. the book should be
read. It is not one of Nine. Undset's
greatest. but it bears the mark of
master hand.
THE HOME PLACE. BY Dorothy
Thomas. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.
THE separate chapters Of this book
have already been published as
stories, in Harper's Magazine. One
of them-the first-had the dubious
honor Of winning one Of the prizes
awarded last year by the o. Henry
Memorial Committee-when the pres
ent reviewer remarked that among the
conglomeration of rubbish which went
into that annual wonder book. Miss
Thomas tale was uniquely good.
Gathered together now in book form.
making a connected narrative, the
stories suffer considerably from same
ness, while tendency toward shallow
thinking and sentiment of the wom-
ans magazine variety also makes it
self dishearteningly evident. The
quality which stood out in the story
form-that is, the quality of aware
ness Of nobility and tragedy in COM
mon life-is now considerably less
apparent than before. Judged by the
volume, Miss Thomas is on the way
to become a successful and esteemed
contributor to the home-making
monthlies, wherein works Of literary
art are spaced attractively along
through recipes for Summer salads
and notes on how to hold the husband.
1t is too bad. She has written we'll.
But the ladies' monthlies pay better
than other periodicals, so perhaps it
is not too bad, either.
The five stories cover a year in the
lives of a Middle Western farm FAM
lily, The people are real and recog-
nizable-honest, proud folk. Three
sons, ruined by the depression, have
come back to the home place to live
with the old folks. They bring their
wives. They are badly crowded;
chickering's and heart burnings occur.
The action is related as seen through
the eyes of Phyllis, the clinging-vine
wife of the second son. Evidently
Miss Thomas admires clinging vines.
Phyllis weeps, droops, pines, sighs-
and is universally admired and waited
on. Edna, the wife of the older son,
IS allowed to do the chores uncom-
mended, and is treated only with
commisseration because, not being
pretty, she is not loved by her hus-
band. Cleo, the third boys wife, is
considered impossible by the family
and, in desperation, finally runs of.
All this Miss Thomas says, is the
way it ought to be. But she by no
means convinces any reader whose
sense of justice is at all active.
If the same circumstances had
been shown without the authors in
sistence on Phyllis righteousness, the
book would have been a good, though
depressing, story of human selfishness
and inarticulateness. But when the
author herself repeats that the weak,
characterless woman is the embodi-
ment of virtue, she must bear respon-
sibiity for meretricious values. 1t is
too bad that a capacity for seeing
beauty in simple things should be
SO mixed up with conventional obtuse-
ness But there it is. The volume is
illustrated with drawings by Ruth
Gannett. They are singularly unat-
tractive.
CLANSMEN. BY Ethel Boileau. New
York: E. P. Dutton Co.
ITO READ this novel in a critical
mood is simply to laugh. But to
read it for entertainment is to get
ones moneys worth. And perhaps
those statements describe it as well as
can be.
1t is most engaging piece of ho-
KUN. There is hardly a trick Of
superior pot-boiler writing that is not
used in it. And so cleverly does Mrs.
Boileau write that it all hangs together
plausibly enough, until you put on
your reading glasses. Then it speed
lily resolves itself into what it really
is-a smart bag Of tricks. But what
odds? 1t is already best seller, and
that, of course, is what it was written
for.
One of the first tricks which the
accomplished author uses is that of
appearing to write a novel of fam
lily. Novels of families are very pop
ular. The first third of her book she
devotes industriously to tracing family
history, beginning in the 18th CEN
tury and coming plausibly down to the
present, making her reader believe
that the present will somehow cast
revelance on the past.
However, when she gets to her mod
ern hero, she runs him through
perfectly conventional career, in which
only occasional spasmodic paragraphs
relate him at all to the elaborate past