Evening star., 1946-02-17
10 Sincloirs Harper Prize-Winning Novel
Is Impressive Study of Mother Complex
WASTELAND

The Harper Novel Prize of &c.,
900 is one of the few dependable fic-
ton awards regularly made in, our
country. I have been watching it
since 1t was first made In 1923 and
there have been few years when it
has gone to a disappointing work.
The winner of the present award
writes. for some reason, under a pen
name. She is Ruth Seid, a Red
Cross worker of Cleveland, Ohio.
This is her first novel but she has
written and published number of
short stories.
The novel which brings her so
conspicuously before the public is
solely study in neuroses as neu-
roses are seen by modern psychiatric
thinking. She gives us family in
which all the members have become
twisted, she has one of these men,
bers take his troubles to a psychia-
trist and through the telling of his
tale she reveals the trouble which
has afflicted all the others. There is
no strangeness in the source of that
trouble; it is the old mother complex
once again. Miss Sinclair simply
shows us what a mother complex
can do, If not understood, through
the course of three generations.
1t starts in Russia in the early
years of the century where domi-
mating woman who has lost her hus-
band concentrates her emotions on
her son. He marries but never real
ICES himself as. an adult. He re-
mains son and his mother is the
head of his family. At her decision,
they emigrate to America. The five
children of the sons marriage grow
UP in loveless home, aware of their
father as cold-hearted and sneering
and their mother as desperately un-
happy. Literally, they never at any
time know an atmosphere of whole
some relationships. They puzzle
their way out of the family misery
unguided, as well as they can.
1t is perhaps indicated to say
that they are Jewish. Miss Sinclair
tells us that, so it is an item in
her tale. She is clear, however, in
telling us also that their race is
not the reason for their wretched-
ness. They do not suffer from un-
kindness ouside their home; dis
elimination does not enter into the
novel. Their story could be told
Of family of gentiles with only
incidental alteration.
Consults Psychiatrist.
The member who takes his trouble
to the psychiatrist is the youngest
son. He has attained success as a
news photographer. At the time the
story opens he is 35. We are told
that it was when he was ID that he
became aware of the unpleasant
qualities of his family-the harsh
ness of his older sisters and brother,
the meanness of his father, the
bewilderment of his mother We are
told then that. seeing these things,
he concluded that they existed be-
cause his people were Jews, though
up to that moment he has had no
feeling of differentness because of
race. So he changes his name from
Jake to John and conceals his
origins from his acquaintances. He
finds substitute parents in an older
man and woman who give him
affectionate understanding, but he
is not able to love any one and,
inside himself, he knows that some
thing is profoundly wrong
In talking out his memories to the
psychiatrist he places before the
reader the whole tangle of the
Observation-Disclosures Browns. His
fathers enSlavement to the grand
mother, his brothers and sisters
resulting Illustrations are all de-
scribed. And then the young man
is cured. The psychiatrist shows
him that the trouble arose, not
from his race but from one weak
member of the race. AS soon as he
sees that he is well and also able
to save the others. The book ends
with the Braunowitzes-even the old
father-taking on the aspects of a
normal affectionate family at last.
In describing the unhappy emo
tions Of her characters, Miss Sinclair
is undoubtedly excellent. She car
ries on narrative of wracking tor
ment the reality of which is un-
broken. 1t would seem to me, how
ever, that the young boys decision
as to the fault of his race, when he
has never experienced any kind of
Ill on racial ground, is somewhat
arbitrary. And I cannot quite be-
lieve, either, that family all of
whose members are middle aged or
old, would change from lifelong hab-
its of unkindness to shy spirit of
love simply because one member
achieved a tolerant attitude toward
the others. But for those two points
I ind the book most impressive