Evening star., 1948-02-15
Reviewed by CARTER BROOKE JONES.

Thunder" both deal with South
Africa. 1.-THE Professors Umbrella" ;"
is a story of anti-Semitisnl on an
American college campus.
Cry, the Beloved Country stands
out above the others. 1t is so fine,
so filled with beauty and COM
passion, that it does not even
suggest such a tawdry term as prop
aganda. The plight of South
African natives, their tribal life
broken, their young people lured to
the white mans cities by false
promises, their labor ruthlessly ex-
plotted, is described unforgettably.
But Mr.. Patton goes deeper than the
surface wrongs, the results OF racial
contempt and misunderstanding.
He probes depths Of character
which are pretty much the same,
whatever a mans plgmentation.
The old Zulu, Stephen Kumalo,
who has become a Christian clergy
man, goes from his native village to
Johannesburg to seek his young
sister and his son. They, like SO
many other young Zulus, have gone
to the great city and dropped out
of sight. Kumalo finds that his
sister has become prostitute IN
native slum. His son is harder to
trace. The boy, Absalom, has drifted
from place to place, and there Is
more than hint of bad companion
ship and crime. His father does not
find him until Absalom has killed a
leading white citizen when the ma
tive youth and two accompllces
were surprised as they robbed the
house. There is tragic meeting In
prison, and then the bitter days OF
the trial.
1t happens that the murdered man
was son of Kumalos neighbor,
Jarvis, the great landowner of his
home community. Jarvis, starting
out with hate for Kumalo and ali
Zulus, learns of his slain sons rn-
selfish work for the welfare of the
natives and discovers, too, Kumalo's
stanch character, his good deeds.
Gradually Jarvis attitude changes.
Compassionate understanding comes
to him.
There is another native clergyman,
Msimangu, who lives in Johannes
burg and helps Kumalo through his
ordeal. If there could be finer
person than Kumalo, it is Msimangu
A spiritual quality seldom found
in modern novels pervades Cry, the
Beloved Country" Mr.. Patton has
not been afraid to show how much
their simple faith means to these
people. Religion is a fundamental
part of most people, and yet nov
elists often ignore 1t or treat it with
cynical condescension.
"The Path of Thunder" is con-
cerned more directly and simply
with racial prejudice in South Africa.
In that country, it seems, there are
three castes-white, black and col
ored. The colored people, a mixture
of the other two, are excluded from
white society, but as rigidly refuse
to associate with the native Negroes.
Lanny is a young colored man who
has been highly educated in Cape
Town and has returned to his own
people to teach. He and Sarie, a
white girl, foster daughter of the
most powerful clan in the COM
munity, fall in love. The hatred of
the white overlords moves against
them inexorably.
Mr.. Abrahams' novel lacks the
spiritual power of Cry" the Beloved
Country" The Path of Thunder"
is inclined toward melodrama and is
not always plausible. 1t is, never
theless. an exciting and moving story
of Illustration and heartbreak.
In "The Professors Umbrella"
Miss Ward describes the effect of
anti -Semitism on the faculty of
big Midwestern university Greg
ory Kitner, an assistant professor of
English. is a lew. though his family.