Evening star., 1947-05-11
Postwar France
Is Setting for
e
Vivid Novel
THE OLD LADY

ny AIlue 1feeH. lHuTp6T, $E.l3J
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Old Madame, as she was called
back in Salisbury, had arrived in
her own France, with her 18-
year-old American granddaughter
Frances. The war, Of course, was
over, but not the incredible confu-
sion and bewilderment. The old
lady did find few distant rela-
tives; the rest had vanished.
Frances had the family pretty
well catalogued, considering she had
been Old Madame's granddaughter
only few years. She wasn't, in
fact, related to the old French
woman, but an adopted grand
daughter, rescued from step-parents
who didn't want her and made her
practically waif.
In Paris Old Madame did find
her once-aff1uent cousin. Michel
Baron, installed in his old mansion.
She had seen him only a few times
and so many years ago. Then it.
turned out 1t wasn't Cousin Michel
at all, but a soldier of the Resist
ance who had been betrayed to the
Germans and tortured and couldn't
remember who he was. He was a
nice, melancholy young man who
one day, surely, would recover his
memory. Meanwhile he and
Frances.
That will give you an idea of
the complications that suffuse a
whimsical novel which has more
depth than may appear at first.
First War Wife.
Old Madame had q daughter,
Georgette, who had married an
American soldier during the first
World War. Georgette and her
husband settled in his home town
in America. After his death, Old
Madame went to Salisbury with the
firm intention of taking her daugh-
ter back to the prosperous family
farms in Normandy. Then the Ger
mans struck again, and 1t was i'm
possible to go back. So the old
lady stayed on with her daughter.
When Old Madame took Frances
of the streets and tentatively
adopted her, the household became
much livelier. There was the French
Club, and the old baker woman,
Nine. Favre, with her brilliant,
delicate son Robert. A blossom
ing romance between Frances and
Robert necessarily withered when
the boy decided, after his mothers
sudden death, to study for the
priesthood.
The war ended, but Aunt"
Georgette wouldn't stir. She was
staying in her American home and
marrying Mr.. Orden. There was
nothing for Old Madame to do but
return to France-not alone, be-
cause Frances stuck.
Miss Green has written this story
with the colortul vivacity her read
ers have come to expect. 1t seems
to me, though, that "The Old Lady
has some confusing elements not
concerned with the complicated
plot, which is quite charming. And
the story takes long time to get
under way. The second half-the
adventures of the old lady and her
adopted granddaughter in France
is much more absorbing.
Startling Dialogue.
Some of the conversations be-
tween Frances and Robert when
they first get acquainted are amaz-
ing even for a couple of precocious
adolescents. We find Robert, point
ing to family portraits and heir
looms, saying of his mother: when
I was born, she just did charring
to support me, and by dint of half
starving herself managed to save
bit and learn the baking business
with these souvenirs as background"
And Frances, who was running with
tough kids when Old Madame took
her in, drops swearing and slang
almost overnight and develops
vocabulary that would do credit to
q postgraduate seminar in English.
You wonder, at first, whether the
tale is to be sheer fantasy. But
naturalism, Of sort, takes over
later, and holds on pretty well to
the close. Salisbury apparently is
not the North Carolina city. but
fancifrl tnun not identified nv