Evening star., 1936-11-07
BY Mary Carter Roberts.

THE SECRET JOURNEY. BY James
Hanley. New York: The Macmil-
Ian Co.
THIS novel comes as sequel to "The
Furys," which for several weeks
last year appeared with regularity
upon the best-selling lists. In view of
the earlier works popularity, it would
seem likely that the present one will
also find q good public, for it Is
virtually continuation Of the first
book. 1t picks up the fortunes of the
Fury family at about the point where
The Furys" left them and it carries
the narrative on in the identical man
ner of writing. Readers who enjoyed
Mr.. Hanleys harsh style and sensitive
thinking will find more of that fare
In his present book.
The earlier novel gave memorable
picture OF q working-class family in
small Irish city. 1t showed, in gen.
eral, the family group chafing under
the domination Of a proud, fanatical
mother; in particular, it showed the
youngest son, Peter, struggling to
throw OF the strangling tentacles OF
excessive maternal affection. Peters
revolt began with his refusal TO repent
when expelled from the college where.
at his mothers insistence, he was
studying for the priesthood. 1t car
ried him into q love affair with his
brothers wife, Sheila, and seemed to
end with q good chance for victory
when he cut of from family asso-
Citations and went to sea. His mother
was represented as broken by these
successive blows to her plans for her
Benjamin.
The new novel however, brings Peter
back and plunges him afresh into the
old conflict. Mr.. Hanley seemingly
has found Mrs. Fury too interesting
to be dismissed. He does not allow
her to remain broken. Instead she
RECEIVERS her vitality in The Secret
Journey" and shows herself as little
bent on letting her family live In
peace as she had been before Peters
detection. While this Is depressing
to the reader who has felt some SYM
pathy for Peter, it is still q valid artis-
tic device. For at no time In the preyl-
Gus work could one feel that Peters
escape was really possible. His moth
er had doomed him too fatefully.
The silver cord in his case had to
become the strangling moose. The
present book Is the grim story Of
that development.
1t carries Peter through . feverish
period of self-confidence when, ab-
sorbed in his affair with Sheila, he
believes himself strong enough to live
his life. Sheila, however, is light
OF love, and when this fact is borne
in upon him all his emotions turn
back on his mother. Remorse for
his rebellion against her overwhelms
him. He takes her sorrows upon him.
self and, in his hySteria, commits
murder to free her from the exactions
OF a money lender with whom she is
involved. Thus, by one act he gives
her the evidence OF slayish love which
she had demanded and destroys him.
self.
1t is . powerful piece OF writing by
which Mr.. Hanley sets forth this
sequence Of unlovely events. In
manner Of tireless realism which, as
Tar as the reviewers recollections 90
the minutiae Of his Fury's muddled
thinking, confused living and added
despair until, out OF the simple rou-
tine Of their days he has created q
veritable nightmare. Not in many
months has there been q book which
gave a comparably vivid picture OF
violent unhappiness brought about by
simple human relations without any
accompanying violent action.
The merit Of the book lies in the
authors difficult honorable concept
OF his material, a concept which is
truly creative and which Is executed
without the slightest reliance on lit
erary conventions. For the identical
plot could have been set down &C
eeptably by benefit Of several time
honored formulas. 1t could have
been made q class novel for one thing
since the Furys are shown to be
poor working people. Or it could have
been one Of the interminable process
sion Of books about young man
consciously seeking his soul, since it
centers about Peters efforts TO break
away from his lifelong associations
These would have been well-marked
highways down which it could have
Travelled easily. Mr.. James Hanley
disdains such cliches. He follows his
own hand in setting forth = concept
20 unfamiliar in current novels that
1t seems probable that many readers
will fail to recognize it entirely.
1t Is the concept of people living
without light, their darkness being
the gloom OF utter self-ignorance, and
yet withal possessed of nerves which
are in torment without the sun. The
Furys, as he shows them to us, are
utterly without misunderstanding.
They are devoured by desires, but
they do not know what they want,
they do not know how to express
themselves, they do not know how to
act. Their guide posts, in 50 far as
they have any, are vaguely senti-
mental feelings-chiefiy q wish to be
loyal to one another and an inherited
attachment to the church. AS they
are elaringly without any real af-
lection for each other or any true
religious emotion, these guides are
not very realistic ones in the crises
OF their lives. On the contrary, they
hinder even the small play of the in
tellect which these unhappy creatures
might otherwise achieve.
1t is a tragedy Of ignorance, but
not that manner of ignorance which
Is conventionally linked to poverty:
the reader feels that the Fury family
might have been encountered in any
level Of life. Their curse is ignor-
ance Of q rarer kind, the ignorance
Of the mind that is congenitally naive
and that fr1rpS iDefipctiyAlvS tn fine.