Evening star., 1938-03-27

offensive to the English taste for mod
GRAFTON. but still could see no way In
which his country could avoid en-
tanglement with the newly established
autocracies. And all this made kindly
Sir Philip very unhappy.
Now he utters the same unhappiness
once more, giving it this time the
form of fiction. He has written a
novel for us in which there Is hero
who believes in moderation and, above
all, in peace. This man is member
Of the Labour party; he is elected to
Parliament. He has great faith in
his idealistic theories for world peace
and social betterment; he is utterly
sincere and is ready to stake everything
on the rightness Of those theories. He
is. IN fact, the stuff of which martyrs
are historically made. And not un-
naturally martyrs end awaits him.
For when the question OF England's S
position in relation to the Italian in
vasion of Ethiopia comes up, the poor
hero, with his faith in collective Sc
curity" and the League of Nations,
goes down to defeat before Conserva-
tive candidate who advocates a vast
military program. Then follows one
blow after another-he loses his post
as editor of paper, his wife deserts
him, his son goes to fight for Com
munism IN Spain. Only his daughter
remains, and her young man has
TUNED Nazi, so one doubts that she is
going to be able to offer him much
comfort.
1t ends just there. Sir Philip, with
even his unquenchable optimism,
seems unable to introduce closing
note OF cheer or hopefulneSs. One
feels about him, somehow, that he is
sort of barometer of English middle
class feeling. And if he still holds
that place, why then the mass of the
English people must be feeling very
badly indeed.
THE SOUND OF ROWLOCKs. BY
Wilbur Daniel Steele. New York
Harper g. Bros.
This novel would seem to be a de-
| parture for Mr.. Steele, who hith-
erto has written somewhat serious
flction. For it is nothing more than
a murder mystery, taken all in all.
1t is murder mystery de luxe. if
you wish; it is given some very. very
authentic scenery from Mr.. Steele's
1aVorlte New England shore and it Is
all cluttered up with native psychol-
ogy and native types and what you
will. But substantially the story gets
down to the familiar question, who
did the killing?
| Well, then, if you like your de-
tective story with one foot in the
classroom of literature and the other
IN the police court. here it is. But
il you prefer novel to be a novel
and mystery to be a mystery, and
draw a severe line between the in
duoitable beauties of the two types
OF fiction. why then THE Sound of
Rowlocks" will rather let you down.
The reviewer has to admit that low
taste inclines her to like her murder
tales simple and CORY. She wants
lots OF horrifying crime, flashy de-
tective and a minimum of psychology.
But this is Wilbur Daniel Steele's first
attempt. He may. in time, get around
to plain commercial competence. It
seems fair to mention the possibility
anyway.
UNCLE TOMS CHILDREN. BY
Richard Wright. New York: Har-
per g. Bros.
THIS is group of four long stories.
1t is written by young Negro.
1t has had the honor OF winning a
contest sponsored by Story Magazine,
the contestants being limited to
writer's connected with the Federal
Writers Project. Considering the
level OF work produced by the mem
bers Of that group, the present COL
lection stands high. But if it were
to be subjected to somewhat more
rigorous standards it is difficult to be-
lieve it would achieve notable emf
nence.
The four stories are tales of in
justices visited upon Negroes in the
South. They are livid with bitter
feeling and deal exclusively with
lynch1ngs, betrayals and murders of
innocent and noble black men and
women by unrelievedly wicked whites.
The author uses an extreme realism
in describing these crimes, devoting
long passages to detailed accounts of
torture and suffering. The sensa-
tional matter apart, however, the
manner of writing is hasty and un-
skilled, betraying too-worshipful
addiction to mannerisms currently in
fashion among those so-called artists
who produce the class-conscious type
of work
THAI the author has composed with
inspiration, however, cannot be
doubted. Unfortunately, his inspira-
ton is that of a specific hatred
not hatred of injustice, but hatred
of the white race-and the result Of
this limitation is that unless one
shares his emotion in advance, or
unless one is stirred by ones own
emotion to protest the truth of his,
one will find his work lacking in es-
sential vitality It becomes a series
Of reportings of horrible events, vivid
but limited. It is only fair to say,
however, that Mr.. Wright's work is
no more limited than most Of the
present-day class literature.
PLANNING FOR THE MARKET. BY
Guy Clinton. Boston: Christopher
Publishing House.
THIS is sort of popular handbook
to economics. Its author, a Wash
ingtonian, has prepared it for the pur-
pose of clarifying for the average cit
izen his generally muddled ideas of
that very mysterious science which
governs our incomes and taxation. To
this end are taken up the subjects Of
money, credit. capitalism, banking,
consumption and planning formi-
dable list, certainly, to be included in
a small-sized book. The essential
theory behind the elucidation Is that
our planning has hitherto been done
from the single standpoint Of either