Evening star., 1946-09-15
Michael Foster Writes on ImpeIIing
New Novel of American Tradition
HOITSE ABOyE THE RIVER
By Michael Foster. Iittlt

By Michael Foster. Ltttte,
BroUn; s2.75.J
About 10 years ago Michael Fos-
ter wrote American Dream" Some
Iiterates will remember that very
fine novel, while whole generation
of slogan-m minded subliterates re-
members the phrase. 1t was book
which showed a profound apprecia-
ton Of the ideals which made our
American tradition-ss long as We
had one. Much of this appreciation
comes over as background into Mr..
Fosters new book, House Above
the River"
So much comes over, indeed that,
as I read, it seemed to me that the
BACKGROUND was of more significance
than the foreground-the plot. The
BACKGROUND gives the hero his char
acter and the book is, after all,
novel OF character rather than OF
action.
The hero, a young man out OF the
deep South. is shaped by that Amer
ican tradition which went with the
knowledge of breeding and the pos
session of standards of possible con-
duct. His family the ConWays, are
sristocrats in a sense of the word
which is virtually lost today, when a
Heiywoodized vulgarism has laid its
connotation vilely on the Term, par
ticularly where the long suffering
South is concerned. The early part
of the book, which is given over to
establishing the characters, is a
study of what this one time Amer
lean tradition meant in integrity, in
tellectual taste, individualism and
even-physical fitness, for part of 1t
was that a man knew the use of
weapons and understood the land
The study is fine. l do not think
that it could be better done.
The latter part of the book deals
with the contrast of the present vul-
garity with that ancient sense of
quality. Into the Conway neighbor-
hood come rich NorthernerS who are
not content to be rich Northerners
--themselves-but must start play
ing at being Southern gentlemen
with only Hollywood to serve them
as models. This, however, should not
be taken as statement that the
novel is latter-day study of sec
tionalism. Mr.. Fosters Conways in
their era could have been found in
many sections of the country and
his nouveauX riches are, alas, typi-
cal of the country today as a whole
rather than any one part of it. They
are not Northerners. as such. They
are the standardless people of our
era, the ones who spend their lives
trying to be like something in an
advertisement, the majority.
The contrast of the two groups is
dramatic but it does not furnish the
plot. That comes in the hero's love
story which is moving enough but
seems, somehow, particularly in its
latter developments. to belong to
another book altogether. Briefly, it
EiFcS Us tilt l"O .FOuliS dIlSUONIdLS
who. because of their extreme inno-
cence, lose their first chance fol-
happiness. The girl then marries a
coarse sort of brute while the young
man wanders widely over the coun-
try trying to forget In middle
age they come together and there
upon, from being a novel of Amer
ican tradition, the book turns
into Freudian report on the efforts
OF the lovers to wipe out their ac-
cumulated Ill memories. This bears
20 little relation to the story as 1t
began that one is inclined to lose
patience with it, although it is ex-
cellently done.
The only justification I could find
for the change of subject matter was
this-that Mr.. Foster meant to show
what the aristocratic American spirit
has to struggle with in the modern
American world, an unholy mess of
crudity more nearly related to brute
beasts than to human potentialities.
If that is the meaning. thensI am
for it.
His book is. anyway, a powerful
novel and discriminating one. |
have no hesitation in commencing it.