Evening star., 1936-10-31
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.


Faulkner. New York: Random
House.
TIGHTING with his own prose
~ like a man slaShing his way
through forest of falling velvet
curtains armed only with dull
knife, William Faulkner here writes
another novel of human disintegration
in terms of the far South. 1t is on
the whole a fine performance, though
its excellence rests on Mr.. Falkner's
formidable prowess as a consistent
stylist rather than on any significance
in his material.
For his story, just as story. Is
purely conventional. 1t is the tale of
Mississippi plantation, from the time
1t was cleared out of virgin jungle by
Thomas Sutpen in 1888 up to the de-
struction of the Sutpen family line in
1910. Such plots have been common
to the point of WEAKNESS in the Ameri-
can novel in the past few years,
though they have by no means always
dealt with Southern scenes. They
have told the tale of the sturdy New
England skipper who built up for
tune with his clipper ships. erected
fine house in his pride and then saw
his descendants degenerate into soft
ness until nothing of his creative effort
remained Or they have told of the
children of the New York patron. 60
ing through the same cycle, or the
Pennsylvania German family, or have
dealt with the descendants of sod
breaking prairie pioneers who went
West with the light of conquest in
their eyes.
The pattern has always been the
same, however 1t is the story of hu-
man resources dwindling to vanish
ing point from a parent of original
force and genius. Mr.. Faulkner has
not changed the outline in any re-
markable degree. But he has con-
tributed luridly tragic coloring that
lifts his book well above the ruck OF
the others.
Through the sheer pounding music
of his prose he has invested his con-
Ventional stuff with conviction and sig
nificance. He writes here as he has
In past novels-that is. as if he were
the only writer in the world, and as If
no one were expected to read his book
except himself. To him, obviously,
the story of the Sutpen plantation has
been immensely tragic. Its conven-
tionality simply has not occurred to
him. He writes with newness about
it. with profound personal sense of
the horror Of its decay and degenera-
ton, not as if he were telling the tale
to some other person, but as If, from
that cycle of human repression he
had drawn such dark and dreadful
beauty that for his own sake alone he
must needs reproduce and preserve it.
And so We have a novel that stands
high among its contemporaries simply
as a prose structure, signal triumph
of style over content and an example
of artistic conviction as force to give
old tales new life and significance.
Beyond that there is not much to
say about the work.
NINE OLD MEN. By Drew Pearson
and Robert S. Allen. New York:
Doubleday-Doran.
THE authors of washington Merry
- Go-Round" and its sequel, More
Merry -Go-Round," two of the Ma
tional Capitals most corrosive CORE
spondents, again have dipped their
pens in acid, this time to etch the
lives and works of the nine Supreme
Court justices
80
and Allen, whose sincerity perhaps is
as great as their skepticiSm, remains
the same as in their earlier works. In
effect, they have lifted up the black
robes of the justices and found men
beneath. Men, they would have you
know, are vulnerable.
The particular form OF vulnerability
to which the authors object in the
men who are nine and old in this
volume is expressed in their own
words, thus:
They had become legislators, not
5urists. They had taken into their
own hands the right OF self-govern-
ment for which our Colonial ancestors
fought -drawn-out war against
Great Britain; and while no British
court can supersede an act of Parlia-
ment, the descendants of those who
once fought Great Britain for legis-
lative liberty have found that liberty
deftly stolen from their hands"
And so the authorS-with enough
liberty left to pass what is bound to
be a financially successful judgment
on the Supreme Court-write with
Indignation on the loss Of liberty.
The premises from which they write
does not enable them to see the gov
ernmental set-up as one of checks and
balances. 1t has become one of checks,
alone, they would have you know.
Pearson and Allen always say we'll
the things they have to say. The cur
rent volume is no exception.
So, there will be those who find It
amusing, others who will question its
good taste, and many, many who will
find they simply have to read it to
keep up with the Joneses. There will
Fl be good royalty checks for Messrs.
Pearson and Allen.
And the Government at Washing
ton still will stand! F. j. C.
EGGS AND BAKER. BY John Mase-
field. New York: The Macmillan
>. Co.
THIS is a sad little novel tracing the
course of mans education in
the thankless business of saving ones
fellows. Robert Mansell, its hero, is
baker in a small English town back
in the 70's. He inclines toward po-
litical liberalism and gives much of
his time and more of his small in
come to furthering socialism and, as
socialism is not popular with his fel-
low townsmen, he rapidly loses stand
ing among them.
: The matter comes to crux when he
attempts to interfere in the courts in
defense of a poor imbecile WHO is