Evening star., 1937-10-16
"CLASS-ANGLING" BOOKS PAY
In His Latest Novel, About Lawless Fellow, Mr. Hemingway
Rebukes Authors for Addressing the Popular Market.
Compton Mackenzie Speaks of Love Again.

idSAJ OAiC ulo3 say No CQudlly PlCSCIb
in all the characters), the novel is
readable. 1t covers the period from
1912 to 1917, and the activity Of that
time atones for the lack OF human
drama. Mr.. Mackenzie. indeed, seems
to have the gift of superb journal
ist rather than OF a novelist. He gives
a splendid picture of events, of man
ners and places; he has fine eye for
picking out the relevant detail in phys
ical description. But when he gets
around to character and to psychology
ical observation, he is theoretical, he
writes like text book, and so he is
dull. The result in this case is q novel
which alternates btween pages given
over to brilliant recreation Of past
era and pages given over lifelessly to
explaining the life Of John Ogilvie,
who. clearly, cannot be explained in
terms of life because, clearly, he has
no human identity. At one moment
the reader will be completely absorbed,
at the next bored and impatient.
Johns adventures in the present
book begin with his advent as a sue
cessful playwright. He comes to
America to see his work produced
here and Mr.. Mackenzie gives a fine
journalists account of our country in
those pre-war days. John next goes
to Italy and there is a similar picture
Of colony of vacationists and ex-
patriots living on the Mediterranean.
War ends this episode and John en-
ters the British Secret Service. He is
assigned to work in the East and this
gives Mr.. Mackenzie his chance to
write Of the fiasco of Gallipoli, which
he does with extreme bitterness,
blaming the stupidity of the COM
manding officers for the failure OF the
British troops to take the place. In
tie same vein he attacks the jealousy
of military authorities toward the sec
ret service men, which, he says, greatly
hampered the latter's usefulness. His
mood here is one Of outright savagery,
an example of his method being his
statement that British Army officers
were required to wear gloves in order
that their fingerprints might not be
traced on stolen articles. The greater
part Of the hero's war service is shown
to be a struggle with military mar
tinets, though the young man does
find time to fall in love with a beau
tiful Greek girl. They become en-
gagged, but the fiancee is drowned in
vessel which is torpedoed by an
enemy submarine.
Presumably this girl typifies Johns
passion for Greece, and it Is the
Greeks of all the Agaean peoples whom
Mr.. Mackenzie finds admirable seeing
in them, curiously, the ancient spirit
OF Hellas. With her death, We are to
suppose, John relinquishes what ideal
ism he has retained, and becomes a
coldly reasoning realist. The book
ends with his return to Italy, where
he has built lonely tower in which
he plans to live and write. The re-
viewer repeats. however, that it is i'm
possible to feel any particular interest
IN the young man, and that the merit
OF this novel lies in its treatment of
recent historical events and not In the
character of its hero, who never seems
to be more than the mouthpiece for
his creators social and philosophical
opinions.
SENTINEL OF THE COASTS. BY
George r. Putnam. New York: w.
w. Norton Co.
THIS book, by man who is we'll
known in Washington both for
his long residence in the city and his
scientific achievements, is the fasci-
mating story, never before told, OF the
development of our Lighthouse Serv-
ice. Mr.. Putnam was for 25 years
Commissioner of Lighthouses, coming
to that position after he had won an
international reputation as an ex-
plorer and engineer Such has been
his experience that, writing the story
of his life, he has virtually written
the history of "the sentinels Of the /
coast at the same time. The result
is a veritable saga.
Mr.. Putnam writes first of his boy
hood, when he had his apprenticeship
in navigation in the famous packets
of the Mississippi River. He continued
his education as an engineer and en-
tered the field service of the Coast and
Geodetic Survey, in which position he
engaged in the survey OF the Pribilof
Islands and the delta of the Yukon
and went on scientific expedition
into the wastes of Greenland. Later
he served as director of coast surveys
in the Philippine Islands, being the
first man to be appointed to this posi-
ton, and subsequently he prepared q
plan for the revision of the charts Of
the coasts of the United States. In
1910 he was appointed as Commits -ioner
of Lighthouses, and the greater part
of his present book is given to the
story Of the Lighthouse Service, to
which he brought the vast fund of his
previous experience. During his period
in that position he brought about the
virtual reorganization of the Office.
His book tells of the development
of this work, from the days Of the
fire beacon to the radio beacon of the
present, and it is an enthralling story
of scientific achievement. MIR. Put
nam writes it, however, without more
technical language than layman can
understand and he has, too, an obvious
awareness of the romance which his
subject must hold for the layman, al
though he himself is always quite mat
ter Of fact. He tells how lighthouses
are built in difficult locations, how the
various types of lights are constructed
and kept lighted, how buoys and light
ships are maintained and how the
Government works to take care Of the
vast tenuous web of men and beacons
which results. And, with admirable
humanity, he writes of the men who
spend their lives in the Lighthouse
Service, telling In detail what their
duties are and in what way they spend
their days in their lonely stations.
The book is one to appeal to lovers
Of sea literature, for 1t has the quail
ties which the good sea story holds