Evening star., 1939-01-22
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

out, Mr.. William Faulkner is a man
who, if confronted by brick wall,
would prefer battering the obstacle
down with his own head to climbing
over it or walking around it's end or
to using any other method of pas
sage. There is no question about it;
he loves difficulty for it's own sake.
Now the reviewer would not say
that Mr.. Faulkner is lacking in ac-
complishment. In battering over
his various literary walls with his
intrepid brow he has, unquestiona-
bly,. a technique and a skill. The
reviewer would even say that of
all writer's who habitually overcome
their material by main strength and
violence he is one of the most i'm
pressive. You get more violence,
that is to say, in page of Faulkner
than you do in a couple of pages of
anybody else You can practically
see him as you read, surrounded by
malignant hosts of writhing paren-
theses, slippery adverbial clauses,
dancing semi-colons, blocky syn
onyms and page-long sentences,
struggling with them as with a
nightmore, disdaining any victory
which is easy. 1t is an awesome
vision, too. But nobody is likely to
claim ever that it is restful thing
to read this literary gladiator. 1t
is, instead. absolutely eXhausting.
In his present book he has used
his familiar turgidity to expand and
expound the realities behind two
such events as might be reported in
any newspaper in about so words
The first would read something like
this:
Harry Wilbourne. former inferno
at -- Hospital, New Orleans, was
sentenced today to serve so years
in the State Penitentiary for per-
forming an illegal operation on Mrs.
Francis Rittenmeyer. Mrs. Ritten-
meyer died as result of the oper-
alton. Wilbourne pleaded guilty to
the charge
And the second would read about
as follows:
"- -, who is serving
15-year term in the State Peniten-
tiary for train robbery, had 10 years
added to his sentence today for at
tempted escape. He was put to
work on the levees during the flood
seven weeks ago and broke away
from the guards. Until his re-
capture he was thought to have
been drowned"
Out of these two happenings, so
routine in our civilized life that no
one would pause for the reading of
a report of them, and no one, hav-
ing read the report, would rcmem-
ber it 10 oeconds afterWaru, Mr..
Faulkner mas bludgeoned into being
a powerful emotional book. 1t is
actually two long short stories, COM
pletely separate as to characters
and settings. told in alternate chap
tiers. First one reads OF the an
guished doings of DR.. Wilbourne
and his mistress, Charlotte Ritten-
meyer. Then one reads of the
despairing puzzlement of the train
robber who never wanted to escape
from his safe warm prison and who,
having accidentally been swept
away from his guards, had but one
thought to his mind-to return and
surrender.
The effect is as of a deafening
counterpoint. In the Wilbourne
story the theme deals with an eff
fort to find liberty, ending in dis
sster. In the convict story we have
the effort to escape from liberty,
likewise ending in disaster. In both
the atmosphere is one of pure
nightmare, stiff, dreamlike, incred-
IDLY prolonged and devastating to
the readers instructive resistance.
OF the two tales, the reviewer pre-
fers the one dealing with the con-
vict. In it there is some humor;
hence it comes great deal nearer
life than does the other one. The
convict, with his fixed idea, is a sort
Of lowlife Quixote. He is pitted
against the awful force of the Mis-
sissippi River in flood; the stream
carries him farther and farther from
his desire-the warm penitentiary-
and rolls and tumbles him about in
way which would utterly destroy
the integrity and dignity of any hu-
man being except the one whose
integrity and dignity lie in some
thing beyond himself, that being,
with the wretch in question, an un-
shakable determination to go back
and surrender. He is a fantastic
puppet tossed by the ruthless waters
and by the no less ruthless hands of
Mr.. William Faulkner, but despite
two such taskmasters he retains his
gravity and his readers respect. His
story Is an unforgettable bit of writ
ing.
The other tale is less well
grounded in essential truth. Its
theme is a conventional one-that
of the star-crossed lovers, no less,
who flee the world only to find the
world constantly at their door. The
young doctor first abandons his
career for his mistress and elopes
with her on stolen money. She,
in her turn, gives up her two chill
dren and prosperous home for her
love. Poverty besets the two. but
they prove that it has no terrors
for them. Then prosperity men
aces their togetherness and they
abandon their money success for
the sake of their sacred passion.
Finally the passion itself overthrows
them; they are to have a child and
they do not dare to- The doctor
performs the illegal operation, his
mistress dies and he is imprisoned
for the rest of his life. He is given
opportunity to escape and also to
commit suicide, but he refuses it,
A life punishment will be life of
memory of his beloved, and he
would rather have that than any
other possible existence. So he
eptars M, his septepco