Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-08-15
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.

Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
A master at story telling here
weaves a tense tale of Central
Africa in the later decades of the
last century.
The author of the Hornblower
saga returns with telling effect
to the Dark Continent, of which he
wrote In an earlier novel, 1.-THE
African Queen"
The leading figure of 1.-THE Sky
and the Forest" is Loa. He was
more than chief of his small, iso-
lated town-he was a god. The zoo
people of the town Frustrated them
selves when Loa passed. He wore the
mantle of his father, Nasa, who
likewise had been worshiped, who
now ruled a village of the departed
somewhere beyond the forest and
the river. The sky and the forest
were Loa,s brothers. The forest was
friendly, but the sky often was
angry and hurled bolts at his peo-
pie. Once a month Loa and his at
PENDANTS went to the great river,
a few miles away, to implore his
sister, the moon, to leave the depths
of the water and again illumine their
nights. She always complied.
To the Slave Markets.
The life of the tribe had changed
little in a thousand years. These
people knew there were other people
somewhere, but they had no con-
tact with them. Their enemies were
the forest pygmies, with their
poisoned arrows and silent stealth.
Loa's people were occasional canni-
bals-not by tribal law, but only
because the forest never furnished
enough meat, and they got tired OF
the bananas and other fruit and
berries which they never lacked.
Their victims were always outsiders,
pygmies or alien tribesmen lost In
the forest and captured.
Then one dawn catastrophe
swept over their village. Strange
tribesmen, led by light-brown Arabs
armed with muskets, overwhelmed
Loa's little kingdom. Half the peo-
pie were killed. The younger,
stronger men and women and the
older children were led away in
chains, urged forward by hippopoto-
mus-hide whips, to be sold in the
slave markets of Zanzibar or Cairo.
Loa the god found himself captive,
lower than his most despised
servant.
A Changed World.
But Loa's first son and heir ap-
parent, Lanu, an adolescent, brave
and clever, had escaped with his
mother, Mustn't, Loa's No. l wife.
They slipped through the forests,
following the pitiful slave caravan,
until at last the chance came and
they rescued Loa. Then began a
long, hazardous trek for Loa, his
wife and son. For many months
they wandered through strange
forests and along unknown streams
At last chance brought them home,
but the village had changed. The
whole world had changed. Loa had
doubts of his divinity, though he
couldn't afford to admit them. He
had seen many strange things dur
ing his odyssey-men who travelled
the rivers in canoes, black men
who were the slaves of black men.
He had absorbed ideas of conquest
and aggrandisement, even hint
of love from Musini's courage and
self -sacrif1ce.
Meanwhile, unknown to Loa, an
army answerable to Leopold II of
the Belgians was moving by steam
boat and barges up the great river,
civilizing Central Africa with guns
and whips, gathering in stores of
ivory and gold. Loa and Lanu
learned the ways of war. Nothing
could ever be as it was before the
Arab slave raiders came.
Holds Suspense.
Mr.. Forester tells his dramatic
story in words that flow as easily
as the great river he describes. The
towering forest always in twilight,
seems the palpable presence it was
to Loa. Loa and his tribesmen are
not idealized-they are depicted as
primitive, limited in perception,
casually brutal-and yet the author
has shaped them with compassion
that inspires sympathy. Of the
minor characters, Talbot, the rene
gade Englishman who commanded
Leopold's invasion force, rates men,
ton; his calm cruelty and sinister
indifference are epical.
The drama moves with brooding
quietness to its climaxes. There is
none of the looseness and verbosity
that mark the long novels in vogue
these days. Mr.. Forester's taut
narrative holds a suspense that
never lags. The Sky and the
Forest" Is one of his finest achieve
ments.
THE CREATIVE CRITIC
BY Carl H. Grabo. UNIVERSITY
OF Chicago Press; 49,
DR.. Grabo feels that the critic Of
the arts should do more than point
out the merits and deficiencies of
new work, more even than evaluate
the more significant e~aations in the
light of past pert FINANCES. The
critic should, he says, help to point
the arts in the direction of making
more definite contributions to the
problems of the times.
In support of this theory, he
makes constructive suggestion.
This is that a literary foundation
be endowed to subsidize books of
great merit which publishers are
afraid to take chance on. DR.. Grabo
would do this through a behind-the-
scenes editorial board, which would
put approved books through the reg
ular publishers, guaranteeing them
against loss. He explains that 1t is
well known that many worthy man
uscripts are turned down because
publishers do not feel that they
would make even expenses. He
realizes that publishers must make
profits to keep going and comedies
that they ARE often quick to appre-