Evening star., 1945-10-14
Sinclair Lewis
Writes uNoyeI
About Marriage
CASS TIMBERLANE

mouse, SE.I5J
The much-heralded latest book by
Sinclair Lewis is, in its authors
own words, "a novel about husbands
and wives" 1t is study of mar
riage, or I will say of American
marriage, for the institution of
matrimony, as Mr.. Lewis treats of
it, is greatly conditioned by its en-
vironment. That is the American
small city in the past decade. The
exact scene is Mr.. Lewis native
Minnesota, but as with his other
snall-city books this one could just
as well have been set anywhere in
the country.
The story is that of one particular
marriage set against background
of other marriages. Cass Timber
lane, dignified and intelligent city
judge, aged Al and lately divorced,
takes as second wife young
working girl of %. There are a lot
of reasons why the marriage seems
a dubious venture. One is the diff
ference in ages. Another is the
fact that while CasS is member
of the local aristocracy, Virginia, the
wife, is an outsider. Still another
is that Virginia's attitude toward
things in general is unconventional
as against Cass' rather sophisti-
Gated conventionality. And still an
other is that Cass is jealous. The
novel traces the troubled course of
the union through quarrels, differ
ences and period of separation
when Virginia goes away with an
other man, CaSS' best friend. The
great and profound love which CasS
feels for his wife, however, triumphS
over all the difficulties, and the
book ends on happy fadeout. Ap-
parently what Mr.. Lewis wants to
tell us is that marriage Is the devil
and only love will beat its many
hazards.
Marriage Profiles.
To substantiate this view with
something more than the experience
of one couple he puts into the back
ground of his main story series
of profles of other couples, most
of whom have found some violently
bizarre obstacle to happiness. In
this manner he gives us the cases
of the drinking wife, the impotent
husband, the homosexual, the ali
mony careerist, the nymphomaniac
and the spiritual sadist, all of which
unfortunates are found in marriages |
which present to the world an as
pect of success. You never know, he
grimly warns us. One concludes
that he regards matrimony as a
closet made to order for homeless
skeletons.
The device of giving the back
ground couples such variety of
bizarre handicaps naturally softens
the oddity of the lead couple with
their 20 years disparity in age. If
it were not their ages it would be
something else, says Mr.. Lewis,
gloomily. Even so, he does not just
assault the whole institution of mar
riage. On the contrary he seems
to say that the one couple who, like
the Timberlanes, achieve happi-
ness, are justification for the many
wretched ones who do not.
The weakness of his book is that
its very nature calls for ten
derly understanding treatment from
the author, and that Mr.. Lewis
does not have. His talent is not for
tenderness-it has never been for it,
1t is for attack. His good books
are those which slash and slay.
When he tries to write pityingly
of the humankind he sloughs off
his brilliance and falls into an en-
barrassing sentimentaity or -
worse-downrigh coyness. That is
what happens with good deal of
"Cass Timberlane." The scenes be-
tween husband and wife which he
wants us to take as most poignant
fail of the effect lamentably. In
good part they read instead like
something out of Tarkington's "Sev-
enteen"
The novel, incidentally, does not
burst on the public as news. 1t has
been running as serial in a ma
tional magazine since last May. The
book was released only as the final
installment appeared. Probably a
million Americans had already
read IT,