Evening star., 1936-04-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE CHERRY BED. BY Karlton Kelm.
BobbS-Merrill Co.
By Margaret Cermond.

OF CnlS nfSC mover, WHICH, JIlOuBQ IlOL 10
be classed as major contribution to the
seasons fiction, scores rather well on two
counts. It's most important character Is
Grandma Corley. an extraordinarily
clever and lovable woman whose ac-
quaintance is well worth the making.
And next it adds another interesting pic
ture to the lengthening list of Main
Street fiction, which is always fascinating
because, if for no other reason, it gives
us closeup view of ourselves as others
see us.
Mr.. Kelm,s variation of the small town
theme is accomplished through the devo-
ton of his narrative to the evolution of
family. Whether or not the Corley
group is typical of the average Main
Street house of kinship may be mat
ter of doubtful opinion. 1t is wise and
charitable to hope that this specific type
is in the minority. Yet every person who
has lived for any length of time in any
one of the multitude of urban American
mmunities-which, after all, form the
backbone of the Nation-knows at least
one such family and maybe few others.
Granted properly adjusted sense of
humor, the enjoyment of narration of
the activities, turmoils, jealousieS and
unpleasant situations into which such
family can become entangled is always
keen.
The significance of the cherry bed is
rather remote when considered from the
point of view of appropriateness as a
title. It's influence is merely the rela-
lively small fact that the grandmother
and the mother of Annie Corley had
Aoo h<r d. An han ,o
bride of Albert Corley the bed had been
given to her with the injunction to see
that all of her own children were born
in it. But the visits of the stork to these
two did not conform to the wishes of
adult humans, and of the five of their
children only the last one uttered the
first feeble cry of new life in the cherry
bed. And. by all of the standards of
society as interpreted by his sisters and
brother, Roy was condemned as black
sheep.
In his mothers estimation, however,
this youngest child of hers was the only
one in which she had implicit faith. He
was different, and she believed that the
wanderlust which drove him from place
to place would be the means of making
him a man of worthiness and ability.
The family has grown up and all save
Olive and Roy are married and have
their own homes when this tale of their
particular lives begins. There are sew
eral well-grown grandchildren, and
Grandma Corley is considered by chill
dren and grandchildren alike as very
nearly the last word in paSSe. They are
all fond of her-in her own home. But
the time has come when she must change
her mode of life. and instead of the
wholesome gladheartednesS with which
they should have entered into con-
tract for keeping so grand and fine a
woman happy and comfortable, they
hold a council to settle her as a prob
lem"
Grandma Corley has been director in
the local bank ever since her husband
died. The bank has failed, and, in ac-
cordance with all the rules of honesty
and integrity by which she has patterned
her life, she surrenderS everything she
owns of salable value except Paisley
shawl She has never before been faced
with the problem of becoming acquainted
with her children as persons. and now
she must buckle down to the task of liv-
ing with each of them by turns and of
learning just what they are like as mis-
treSSeS of their own homes.
The fun soon begins. In the division
of the personal possessions of their
mother not one Of her children wants
anything except the Paisley shawl.
Grandma Corley settles the fight by
keeping it for herself. From the shawl
incident to the end of the story there is
a succession of rivalries, jealousies. spite
parties and all the other jumbled picnics
created by domestic selfishness that are
part and parcel of small-town life. The
small town, however. has undergone
rapid changes in the past few years, and
the people who fill these pages with the
amusingiy intensive manner of their
lives are the ultra -moderns striving with
all their strength to be New York in
HickSville and feeling unjustly let down
by the complete failure of visiting New
York girl to measure up to all of the pre-
tense and the display of false values ar
ranged and practiced for her particular
benefit.
Through the tribulations of her chill
dren and the romanceS of her grand
children Grandma Corley wears crown
of jewels not visible to the eye, but gilt
tering in the hearts of Roy and Jana
and the others, who learn to know her
for the marvellous person she is rather
than the passe old woman they thought
her to be. Humor, wit and true valua-
ton of human beings and their weak
neSses make her character worth
knowing.
LORD CoBBLEIGH DISAPPEARS. BY
j. C. Snaith. New York: D. Appleton
Century Co.
If oddity is the quality that the reader
of mystery fiction desires for change,
then "l"affaire Cobbleigh" offers it in
abundance. An almost priceless neck
lace of black pearls is stolen from the
home of Lord and Lady Cobbleigh in
rural England. Young Thorp Devereux,
London agent of the famous Mumm In
vestigation Bureau of Vienna, plays golf
frequently with his lordShip at the Meth
erwold Golf Club, and in a moment when
anxiety is the uppermost emotion in the
elderly plutocrat's breast he confldeS his
troubles to that diligent and able sleuth.
The case becomes too involved for him
to handle alone, so after consultation
with his equally clever and competent
wife, who had served most satisfactorily
as the great Mumm's secretary, they ask
the super investigator of Vienna to take
hand in an effort to recover the pearls.
That gentleman finds that not only have
the pearls been stolen by famous gang,
but that one and perhaps others OF the
valuable paintings in the Cobbleigh
house have been substituted with value
less limitations.
Soo, after the discovery that the naint-