Evening star., 1937-10-16
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

Ernest Hemingway. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons.
IN THIS, his first long work of nc
ton since "A Farewell to Arms" T"
Mr.. Hemingway makes some very
i severe observations concerning
the practice of our current novelists
OF writing, for the sake of the popu
lar market, works which supposedly
expose the grievous wrongs of the
poor. He observes Gas the reviewer
has many times observed) that few of
these writer's have any real acquaint-
snce with the workers life about
which they write and that most Of
them, while ostensibly burning for
the workers cause, are quite fervidly
desirous of joining the capitalist class
Tor their own part.
He accuses them, in short, of hypoc-
risy, expediency in choosing their
subjects and bad writing. There is
certainly much truth in his allega-
tions and the reviewer is in sympathy
with them, but, at the same time, she
Is somewhat puzzled. For Mr.. Hem
ingway seems to have joined the ranks
OF those very authors whom he mocks.
He has here taken what might be a
fine adventure story and twisted it
pointlessly to the theme Of "have and
have not" 1t looks very much as if
he were climbing on the very band
wagon OF popular sales which he pro-
fesses to hold in such contempt, only
assuring his readers that his superior
craftsmanship makes his ascent
uniquely authentic. 1t is cleverly
done. but no one would ever say that
Mr.. Hemingway was not a clever man.
His story, in its essence, is that of
a lawless man. Harry Morgan, born
adventurer, fellow who cannot limit
himself to routine but must seek &C.
ton, human type which has been
found IN every age, class and coun-
try since the world began. Mr.. Hem
ingway puts him down in Key West.
Fla, for the purposes of the present
story and shows him to us engaging
in number of eXtra-legal activities
such as alien smuggling and rum
running. Harry loses an arm as a
result OF gun battle with Cuban
authorities and his boat as the con-
sequence Of the disapproval of the
American Government. Some Cuban
revolutionaries rob the local bank to
secure funds for their party and Harry
agrees to transport them to their ma
tive land, provided that they make
his assistance look as if it were forced
His plan is to murder his passengers
at sea and return to claim the re-
ward. He does kill the four men, but
is himself fatally wounded in the
shooting. And thus he dies. It is a
fine, stark story, in its essence, fit to
be placed with some of Stevenson.
But Mr.. Hemingway has twisted it
about very curiously.
After showing Harry to us as the
type he is, man of courage and force,
but utterly lawless, man who has
no compunction about double crossing
q fellow, beating helpless man or
taking human life, yet an engaging
brute. he then tells us tenderly that
all OF his hero's eXtra-legal enter
prises are carried on because he is at
heart great family man and cannot
bear the thought of having his wife
and little ones go wanting And, as
II to carry this pathetic concept into
greater relief In the readers mind,
MIR. Hemingway highlights his pic
ture by scenes demonstrative of the
wickedness and corruption of those
inhabitants of Key West, Fla, who
never have to worry about want-the
yachtsmen, the wealthy Winter peo-
pie and the visiting literary men. Look,
he seems to say, while the poor, hon
est sea captain is out running rum
and smuggling aliens and committing
incidental murders, in order to keep
his home fires burning, these repre-
sentatives of a privileged class are
Wantoning IN silken luxury and lead
ing lives of gilded corruption. Oh, is
1t not terrible?
Well, the reviewer can only say that,
while the activities of both the rich
yachtsmen and the poor Harry Morgan
may be truthfully drawn the point of
MIR. Hemingways contrast is badly
taken. For it is impossible to hold the
yachtsmen in any way responsible for
Harry's plight, and it is likewise i'm
possible to believe that Harry would
have conducted his life along different
lines under different circumstances.
He might have been more successful at
another time in history. One can pic
ture him doing very nicely as cap
tain Of freebooters in the sixteenth
century or as lone-hand scout and
Indian fighter of the Boone, Kenton,
Wetzel type. That the twentieth CEN
tury would cramp him one can admit.
But that it would make him a law
breaking adventurer is not admissible.
When, therefore, Mr.. Hemingway
breaks down and, with tears in his eyes,
invites us to look at the case of the
"haves" and 'have-nots," as exempli-
ned by Harry and the aforesaid
yachtsmen, one feels that he is giving
an irrelevant turn to his material.
Harrys adventures make a fine story,
. story of action, danger and courage.
but they do not make a sociological
document. and great is the pity that
Mr.. Hemingway should have yielded
TO the popular trend which (since
"class-angling" pays) would make such
q document out of an account of light
ming striking tree-that very trend
which he himself ridicules. The re-
viewer herself will take her freebooters
straight. Genghis Khan in the guise
OF a yearning pater familias does not,
some way or other, strike her as abso-
hItely convincing.
THE SOUTH WIND OF LOVE. BY
= Compton Mackenzie. New York:
:. Dodd, Mead g. Co.
CoME time last Spring Mr.. Macken-
zie brought out the first novel of
the tretralogy of which the present
work is the second. The first work
was called "The East Wind of Love" !"
It seems reasonable to guess, the COM
pass being what it Is, that the other
two works will be "The West Wind"