Evening star., 1937-04-10

Surmount the triteneSS of his theme.
Mr.. Rylee has to be sure given his
material certain twists of originality.
dreadful simplicity which character
lied his first work. But his book re-
mains the book of fiction hero
searching for a fiction commodity.
AS has been said, it is a disappoint-
ment.
The hero in question is Southern
youth, as was Mr.. Rylee himself He
grows up in the deeply grooved, deep
ly-fixed tradition of the rural South,
occupying favored position as son
Of gentleman, but by no means
isolated from the influences of the
country existence. He is lonely
boy; he longs for friends, but does
not know how to make them. He
grows up, he has some love affairs,
he spends some time in the war, he
practices law, his life is empty, he is
dissatisfied, he dreams, he wonders.
And then, finally, he droWns-just as
he had made resolution to live his
life for himself henceforward, what
ever that might mean. The pattern
is more than little familiar.
Where Mr.. Rylee deals with the
scenes of the Southern country ex-
iStence, he writes with convincing
quality. But for the rest of the book
it is not memorable.
SUNS GO DOWN. BY Flannery
Lewis. New York: The Macmillan
Co.
THIS is the story of Virginia City,
New. from the early Cos when
it was in its heyday, through its
progress toward respectability in the
Dos and COS and on into its present
decay. But it is not just that. For
Mr.. Lewis, telling of the vanished
glamour of the old mining camp, uses
the device of calling on the memories
OF his grandmother His grand
mother came as a bride to the then
young town in '62: she never left the
place; she lives there today, lady
past 80. Her memories of the past
are quite clear. She talked to her
grandson and he wrote down the
things which she told him.
1t makes a readable book, of the
kind for which one feels mild af-
lection. Its mood is one of indulgent
and humorous tenderness very well
sustained. 1t is recommended to
those who like little retreat into a
slightly sentimental past.
PERUVIAN PAGEANT. BY Blair
Niles Indianapolis: Bobbs Mer-
rill Co.
Asst year or early this year Mrs.
Blair Niles published a novel Git
was called DAY of Immense SUM-
which had for its scene Peru in the
days Immediately preceding and fol-
lowing the Spanish conquest. The
work was adequately described by
one critic as being novel of the
1ncas with plot that might have
taken place in New Jersey. It was,
in other words, one OF those geo.
graphical or scenic novels, in which
a vast exotic background is supposed
to recompense the reader for small
conventional plot.
At the time this novel was published
it was widely advertised that Mrs.
Niles had gone to Peru to get her
materials" that she had Travelled
many thousand miles and that she
had undergone vicissitudes, hardships,
dangers, discomforts, mosquitoes, FROST
bite, and sir sickness in her indefatig-
able pursuit of truthful detail. She
now gives to the world the record of
that pursuit-the by-product, as it
were, of the novel set in Peru which
could have happened in New Jersey.
AS it happens, it is a much better
book than the one to which it is
incidental.
1t is good book, from the reviewers
point Of view, simply because it con-
tains much information o. the history
Of Peru Of which the reviewer was
ignorant. To be sure, Mrs. Niles
strings this information on a some
what insistent thread OF personal in