Evening star., 1938-11-13

ness" But Just so much more is it
effective.
AS for the stock taking process
which the Admiral hoped to accom-
plish. it came to little more than
an affirmation of faith in God as the
ruling intelligence. At the depth
of his illness it was this which gave
him the conviction to refuse to give
up, he tells us.
And at the end there is this elo-
quent observation:
"' must mention one more
thing I learned as result of what
happened to me there. Eager as
I was to step directly into the re-
sponsibilities of leadership on my
return to Little America, I was not
long in discovering that a few were
beyond me. So I say in con-
Clusion: A man doesn't begin to
attain wisdom until he recognizes
that he is no longer indispensable"
TO REMEMBER AT MIDNIGHT.
BY Michael Foster. New York:
William Morrow e. Co.
Let it be said first of all that
Michael Foster is the man who
wrote American Dream" That
was splendid novel. It set a mark
almost impossible for any one to
live up to.
Mr.. Fosters present book, however,
is also good. 1t is filled with that
same living quality which he gave
to the Dream" and it is a highly
readable story. 1t just happens to
be a smaller sort of thing, smaller
in scope and more personal in
treatment.
1t is the story of an actress. It
takes her from her childhood to the
peak of her career, through highly
picturesque circumstances and
events. She is stage baby, the
child of second-rate vaudeville
actress and ham ballad singer.
Her early stage experience is in
the old Northwest, where she plays
as feeder" to her father before
audiences of lumberjacks. Even
tually the parental performance be-
comes too bad even for those un-
critical beholders, and the pair leave
the show to settle in coastal lum-
ber town. Here the young girl at
tracts the attention of the local
magnate. He becomes her friend
and patron. She advances to bril-
lance on the stage; she marries the
son; she expects child.
In other words, she tastes the full
ness of fame and love-and she
still wonders, for she is touched with
genius. That, in so little, is the story.
1t is told, however, with a wealth
of picturesque and searching char
acterization. The theatrical life and
the life of the West Coast towns is
painted in With a sort OF mon
strous vividness, with great shad-
ows and brilliant lights. It is a
poet who tells the story, in other
words. That is as good a way as
any of describing the significance
which Mr.. Foster gives to his cas-
ual detail and casual syllable.
WOLF AMONG WOLVES. BY Hans
Fallada. New York: G. P. Put
mans Sons.
The tendency toward "epic" novels
seems to have set in so strongly now
that one can only expect it to en-
dure for some time That product
of the 20's-the brief brilliant i'm
pressionist work of fiction-appar-
emily is a thing of the past. Some
of the present writer's are even going
in for series" of novels, seemingly |
finding a single volume inadequate
for the weight of the tale they have
to tell. The French, to date, have |
led the way in this fashion But !
now we have Herr Fallada cLittle
Man, What Now') coming out with
a German epic" one which, in very
small type, runs more than 700
pages. Herr. Fallada, like his con-
is occupied with tell
ing us what happened throughout
a whole nation during rather pro-
longed period of history.
1t would seem, indeed, that the
reason for tie "epic" trend is simply
that we have moved far enough
away from the war and its effects
for our writer's to be able to believe
that they see the period in its en-
,irety at last. Those brilliant i'm
fragments which were
he literary mode Is years ago no
ioubt came from a like time-de-
,ermined cause; the world then had
not got perspective on what had
to it; it could only see in
BITS and glimpses, as it were. But
now our men of letters have ac-
luired-or believe that they have
true vision of our vio-
ent past, and one after another
hey are putting down for us what
hey have gathered from their
seeing.
Herr Fallada is occupied with the
postwar years of his country, those
ears preceding the stabilization of
he mark, when poverty and uncer-
;ainty were the real rulers of Ger
many and whole social order was
overturned. His hero is Wolf-Wolf-
yatag Pagel, at greater length-and
n VOLTS adventures he manages
% show us the disordered life of the
and in it's cities and in its rural dis
,ricts, too.
Wolf is not made a symbol" for
is, however. He is kept strictly hu-
nan and his course is determined to
considerable extent by his love
lffair with Petra-a little waif whom
le picks up on the streets of Ber-
in and later finds indispensable to
lim. His city existence is precarious
n the extrene-he Is engaged In