Evening star., 1938-10-02
By Mary.Carfer Roberts

Press.
TH1S book is collection o
stories-l2 short and / long
1t is also by the eminent Johr
L Steinbeck ('Mice and Men,
whose name lately has become SYM
Dol for worship to a whole generation
of youths who hope some day to live
of royalties themselves. Be it said
then that the II short tales are OF
little merit. They are no better than
what is known as well-planned. a
condition which means. to an expert
enced reader, that, after perusing the
first four paragraphs. he can plot
the rest by slide rule. Such opera
may conceivably be good practice
writing for students in short-story
courses. But beyond that the re-
viewer knows of no possible reason
why they should be written, except,
of course, inclusion in the annual
"best story anthologies. The long
story, however-it is called The Red
Pony'-is an entirely different matter.
1t is as fine work of its kind as
the reviewer has seen in long time
Both in concept and execution it de-
serves the highest praise
AS for the concept, this is story
OF childhood and of that profound
aWareness of life which some children
have and which most adults lack.
1t is, indeed, study of the promise
which existence holds out to the
sentient young. and to which there
Is no fulflllment, simply because no
fulflllment is possible. In the hands
Of a less perceptive. or less skillful
writer. the story might have been
mere record of childhood dlsappoint-
ments, poignant but without signifi-
canoe. AS it is, it tells of the disap-
pointment which awaits all the sensi-
tive, as corollary simple to having
been born.
As to its execution, that could
hardly be improved The author has
had two worlds to show us. two worlds
existing simultaneously and overlaying
one another. The one is the tangible,
sensible world of adult cares, in which
a child has certain part the other
is the child's world, which is at once
contained by that of the adults and
utterly beyond it. Mr.. Steinbeck has
at no point transgressed ordinary
realities in building the frame of his
tale. And at the same time he has
kept his two spheres before us, both
vivid and both credible. 1t is a feat
to which other authors have brought
such artifices as time dimension and
g
such props has resulted here in
sturdier and more memorable work.
The story centers around a little
boys capacity for love. He lives on
ranch in Monterey County, Calf,
where he has good outdoor life-ani-
mails, space and nature. Nothing, how
ever, supplies him with an object for
his natural affection; his parents
discipline him, his dogs are family
property. Then he is given a pony
colt. 1t becomes his other self. He
tends it, trains it and breaks it.
Through an innocent fault of hired
man, it catches cold and dies. After
time his father promises him a
second colt He tends the brood mare
through the months of waiting and
dreams of his future glorious steed His
spirit is liberated by his anticipation
Then the mare tries to bring forth and
cannot. Before the eyes of the waiting
boy the hired man. determined that
the child shall not have a second dis
appointment. kills the mother and
drags the bloody foal from her body.
The boy has his colt-and a memory
Of dreadful horror
Thus. Mr. Steinbeck seems to say,
We adults wrong the young by bring
ing them into being. and wrong them
then a second time by our desperate,
clumsy effort to keep our faith with
them. 1t is all done implicitly. There
Is a complete absence of moralizing.
1t is beautiful, well balanced and
highly sentient. The two episodes
that of the pony and that of the foal-
are separated by chapter which con-
stitutes sort of SLOW movement" in
which the boy gets his glimpse of the
long path of endurance which lies be-
fore us all. The rightness of this inter-
lude, its absolute propriety in relation
to the rest of the story, can hardly be
overestimated. 1t justifies the homage
which Mr.. Steinbeck is receiving from
our young readers, and that is thing
which, to the reviewers mind, Mice
and Men" does not do, neat and COM
petent though that little gold mine
unquestionably is.
AFTERTHOUGHTS ON THE U. S. S.
r. BY Andre Glide. Translated
from the French by Dorothy Busy.
New York: The Dial Press.
THE war about the soviets still goes
on. There are. evidently, men
and women who even now find subject
for argument in the case of Commun-
ism, despite the fact that that case has
for some time been closed by its own
participants to any further specula-
ton; they have written their own
record in their deeds, and the writing
can be read clear round the world
Communism, to the intelligent, has
crystallized into tyranny.
But still the Communists themselves
argue among themselves. They alone,
the wall. And so NJ. Andre Glide, who
was once one of them and who after
a visit to Russia withdrew his alle-
glance to practical Communism as it
is carried on in that land. gives us one
more book on the subject. 1t tells us
nothing which we have not already
heard on excellent evidence, but it
may have some interest to the public
because of M. Gide's prominence and
past position on the subject.
The work is rebuttal to the at
tacks of comrades who disagreed with
M. Gide's previous work, Back From
the U. s. S. r." In that book he told
Of the failure of the Russian expert
ment to improve the lives of the peo-
pie and announced his inability to
support Communism any longer He
was promptly flooded with wrathful
letters as he tells us here The pub
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