Evening star., 1937-03-31
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BY MARGARET GERMOND.
VERY HEAVEN. BY Richard Arlington.
New York: Doubleday, Doran g. Co.

AS theme for the problem novel,
modern youth in this postwar world of
| economic unbalance and social upheaval
| is becoming somewhat stale. The sub
| ject has been, In fact, so thoroughly COW
| cred by writer's from every school of
| thought that there is little material left
| for treatment by even so eminent critic
| as Richard Arlington.
When all is said and done, the prob
lem OF the youth of today is no greater
| in proportion to the state of civilization
| than it was for the youth of any other
| era. 1t has always been and will always
| be the privilege of youth to condemn
the views and ridcule the ideals of the
parent generation. 1t is perhaps in
| tended in the divine scheme that youth,
overwhelmed by the self-conceived be-
lief that a timid, convention-tied world
is aching to receive the benefits of its
superior wisdom, should brandish the
scepter of heroic leadership until bit
of practical experience dries out some of
the wetness behind the ears and sets
in motion the processes of fundamental
analysis and sane reasoning.
In the present state of economic and
social revolution youth has undoubtedly
suffered disillusionment, DISAPPOINTMENT
anu OCSpdll DuJ olllllldl WUCo, dS ulS-
tressing in degree and longer in dura-
ton, were faced and endured by many
previous generations of youth with far
greater fortitude than is being displayed
by the young men and women who to-
day are shouting their demands from
the housetops. There has never been a
time when there was no work to be
done. But a little study reveals the
hol for hof rn,,tI &c
not so much interested in work as it
is in the amount of pay it will receive
for its services. Hard work at an unin-
teresting job for small pay is too trivial
to be bothered with. What is demanded
is comfortable not too exacting posi-
ton" attached to sizable salary. Such
an attitude has made modern youth it's
own worst enemy, and it is not surpris-
ing that if in recent months the wall
of the disgruntled has become tiresome.
1t is to the problem of such a youth
that Mr. Arlington devotes his new novel,
Chris Heylin, likable young man who
has been compelled by the collapse of
the family fortune to leave college and
return to the home fireside is familiar
type. The author builds his case upon
the theme that the ugly world into which
Chris is required to fit himself is the
very heaven it is to be young today"
AS the exponent of Mr.. Aldington's
own bitter antagonism to the pre-
Valling social. economic and religious
order, projecting venom into the artery
of sham and pretenSe which feeds the
rotting body Of a make-believe land of
moral and spiritual righteousness, Chris
merits a round of applause But his
savage, brutal assaults upon these false
concepts of supposedly intelligent
civilization are the studiously evolved
convictions of an intellectual rather than
the half -dlgested gleanings from the
wisdom OF modern SageS that the average
college student could master. And Chris
can by no stretch of the imagination be
rated as more than average.
AS the disappointed student who real
ICES that his dream of converting stupid
race to a new philosophy of freedom
and happiness. young Heyln is typical
of the usual victim of frustration-un-
compromising and bitter against the
world in general and his parents in
particular. And as the hard-up young
man sincerely in search of gainful oc-
cupation he is distinctly representative
of the arrogant. useless product of his
age, bristling with self approval, conf
dent of his superiority, contemplate in
his attitude toward the only available
means of self-support and literally oozng
incompetence.
Todays world undoubtedly seems a
cruel place to those who like Chris. are
so ill-equipped to meet the demands of
rapidly changing social and economic
system. The point that Richard Aiding
ton along with other critics of the new
order, has missed, however, is the fact
that postwar youth has been educated
to a belief in new set of shams and
pretenses that, in comparison with the
talsity of the system which he con-
demns, tower beyond the capacity of
human comprehension. 1t is the same
old world, crumbling in spots as it has
crumbled before, carrying its human
freight at higher speed with the conse-
quent wreckage which lack of clear vision
entails, sWaying precariously when
shaken by the vibrations of economic
earthquakes, but eventually righting it.
self and settling down to the simple
formula of indulging in a much-needed
dose of common sense.
The story of Christopher Heylin is far
from dull. 1t is brisk and interesting and
characteristic of the unyielding spirit of
yOuIll. LII CIlSoiy IL ID ali vi
indictment of the agencies through
which youth has been brought to its
present plight Actually it is an in
dictment of youths incapacity to con-
form to an unhappy world which it
cannot in day or year transform
into the Utopia it expected to create with
a college degree and an imagined store
of worldly wisdom.
MARRIED PEOPLE. BY Mary Roberts
Rinehart. New York: Farrar &
Rinehart.
This group of short stories attests to
Mrs. Rinehart's inherent belief in wife
hood as a vocation and in the impor-
tance of applying to the business OF
marriage the same principles of eff
cheney and integrity that would be car
ried into any other profession. Each
story is a variation on a husband and
wife problem which is familiar to any
observer of the strains and stresses of
misunderstanding which afflict a man
and woman who have pledged them
selves to live in peace and harmony
for ever and ever
One story deals with the bugbear of
fading youth; another with the estrange-
ment brought about through extrava-
gance and gay parties. Discomfort of
husband who is fascinated by another
woman is the theme of the RoSsiter
family; a runaway wife who is saved
from suicide by a determined nurse
l. ILL., 80 %I,o%