Evening star., 1937-04-17
AUTHOR SURPRISES SUBJECT
Clever Writer Maintains Interest in Old Fngate's Cruise Among
the Seas-Epc Lines Give Force to Volume Quo
tations-Modern Greek Produces Again.

on the other hand is not.
! Mr.. Bojer's work has not infre-
quently been called Greek" because
OF this same inescapability of the plot
from the grooves into which he sets 1t.
concept of inesecapable fate which
he brings to his execution. They
veiled the inevitability OF their de-
nouments In aWfulneSs and mystery.
Mans destiny, they mourned, could not
be eluded, but it was the inscrutable
will OF the gods which made it so.
Man, meeting his doom, partook Of
the attributes OF the gods from whom
it came. Not so the hero of by Day
and BY Night" He is victimized by
the petty, whose spite he has aroused
by behavior which Is both devoid Of
intelligence and highly improbable
in a man OF the qualities which his
author tells us are his. The result
is that Mr.. Bojer's work proves his
theme but bellies his men and wom-
en-. The reviewer cannot concede that
this belongs to the Greek tradition.
1t seems, instead the prostitution Of
a good writer to evangelical ends.
WILDERNESS WANDERERS. BY
Wendell and Lucie Chapman. New
York: Charles Scribners Sons
IT CANNOT be regarded today as
very original venture for young
married couple to go somewhere into
a wilderness and assiduously gather
material for book. 1t has been done
too often. 1t is, of course, a pleasant
thing to know that there are young
people who prefer difficult outdoor
existence to regimented suburban rou-
tine, but that is hardly question for
book reviewer to take up. It is the
books which they write after return
ing from these exoduses which a critic
must consider, and, whether the
couple In question has been shooting
lions IN Africa or, as in the present
case, merely photographing bears in
a Well-rangered national park, the
books show a great similarity. At best
they are competent journalism. At
worst they are full of strained bright
ness and somewhat darling anecdotes
OF animals whose behavior one feels
is being interpreted strictly from the
copy" point of view.
, The present collection, by young
man and woman who went out to
Yellowstone and industriously waded
about In its deepest SHOWS to take
snapshots Of jackrs bbits, rams,
weasels, martens, elk, moose, beavers,
bears these feeding before a grand
stand OF tourists at park hotel gar
oage Dump and buffalo (being moved
by park officials from one pasture to
another in accordance with their sea-
sonal habit) partakes of the Gus
tomary good and bad about equally.
| Granting that the conduct Of animals
in their native environments is in
tereStlng, there Is substantial
amount OF interest in this work. At
the same time, one can hardly share
the books frequently reiterated state
ment that all this snapshottinp was
adventurous, since young Mr.. and
Mrs. Chapman were in what Is vir-
tually zoo, and one OF the most
vigorously policed and regulated ZOOS
in the world, at that.
Moreover, this ruthless zeal for
photographing seems to the reviewer
a thing hardly devoid OF offense to
persons OF taste, and the statement
Is made without sentimentality. The
bear which Is reused from its hiber-
nation to be snapped probably does
not concern himself about the rea-
son for the disturbance. But what
grace is there in rousing him at all?
Stl!l, this Is right, readable book.
Some OF the photographs so arduouslv
gotten are reproduced in it, and they
are effective pictures. The Indians
who assisted in running the buffalo
were white men gotten up in costume
for benefit of the movies; the dan
gerous grizzlies were at all times
under the range of park guards
gun. But none Of this shows in the
photographs, and so, what of it?
Material" has been put to materials
uses-another book has been made
One can even hope that HolIywood's
blessings light upon the young au-
thors, for they made movies, too. Thev
confess it.
FOOLS MELODY. BY the author of
Miss Tiverton Goes Out" and
Michael Cape-Meadows. Indian
apolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co.
HE information that th.s novel was,
IN part at least, the work of the
anonymous author Of Miss Tiverton
Goes Out caused the reviewer to take
1t up with interest The promise, how
ever. was not fulfilled. The book does
not have the merits of the earlier novel
and what merits it does have are hard
10 define. It is one Of those stories
about a group Of people suffering from
personal griefs and burdens, and how
they found happiness. Now, it is
doubtful on the face of it that any
BODY ever finds happiness, and it seems
even more doubtful that the commod-
lty could be attained by the methods
outlined by these collaborators-that
is. by reliance on the counsel of an
insane man. But there it is-he (the
mao one) plays the part Of good angel
10 MS fellows in a private sanitarium
until they are variously disposed Of,
ness, he dies. The motto seems to be
that those who save others cannot save
themselves. But the question which
Is apt to come to a readers mind is
whether any one has ever saved an
other human being, or whether, for
that matter, any one can.
In addition to these objections, the
book Is wordy and badly written. There
Is a reality in some Of the characters,
but 1t is lost in the general vagueness
OF the treatment. It Is a long way
indeed from Miss Tiverton."
WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. BY Frances
Parkinson Keyes. New York: Ju-
liam Messner.
MRS. Keyes writes here a simple,
charming narrative of the life
OF that Therese Martin who has be-
come known to the world as the Little
Flower Of Iisieux, and who is named