The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-11-14

The imagination of Mary Eller Chase reaches a further range in her latest novel, "Windswept' (Macmillan). a powerful epic of America. The setting for this story Is the bleak and windswept coas' of Maine, for the most part, but the scope of the work is vaster than he' earlier books, which have had more exclusive regional character.
 Windswept was the home planned but not actually built by Philip Marston, founder Of the Marsson dynasty, who died before the estab- lishment on the promontory juttin9 out frcm the barren Maine coast could be built. The house becomes the unifying symbol for Miss Chass's broad narrative of the cominsline lives of the native American stock represented by the Marstons, ano the later emigrant blood typified by the Czechs, Jan and Anton.
 The philosophy which this novel presents is that of a broad, endless stream of American culture, con- stantly renewed and refreshed by the contributions of the new arriv- als from Europe. Windswept typi- fies the sturdineSs of the naive American roots and Philip Marston and the philosophy which he be- queaths to his family represents ths liberal American tradition of open minded interest and appreciation oi alien cultures.
 Miss Chase erects her vision oi the American way of life Ike a beacon on the Maine coast that shines out to a dicattor-ridden Eu- rope, much as the actual lighthouse beacons of the Maine shore give cheer to the approaching ships in a winters storm.
 AS always, she has written in an impelling and beautiful prose style which at times has the swelling scope and measured cadence Of blank verse. Her plot is sure and swift-moving, quickly and skillfully weaving the readers interest into the saga of the Marstons.
 William McFee finally has turned the tables on the character who served him faithfully and well these many years as a raconteur. For in "Spenlove in Already" (Random House), the chief engineer Of so many earlier McFee stories becomes not the narrator of other persons adventures, but the central figure in one of his own.
 Spenlove, with a comfortable nest egg and many years at sea behind him, retired to the small farm he had bought in the rolling hills of Connecticut. Here, he thought, he would while away the hours in bachelor solitude. doing the things he had neither the time nor incli- nation 10 do in his younger years. But he was not prepared for the strange Americans who lived in his neighborhood. There was Elliott Ducroy, the fabulously successful writer, who was having an affair with an equally successful woman magazine writer. There was Sonia, Elliott's charming step-daughter,  and Sonja's mother, Perdita, the enigmatic Englishwoman who made Spenloye long for home and then for her, a strange and fascinating woman of rare charm.
 Her frankness was disarming to a man who previously had steered clear of romantic attachments and sentimental encounters. But when Perdita made known to him that. with Ducroy's growing attachment for Sydney Saxon, she needed his eompanionship, he was thankful.
 McFee fans who have enjoyed Spenlove stories before will relish this one. For in "Spenlove in Ar- cady," the old sailor comes of age grows into a human, living per- sonality who solves the major prob lem 0f his life.