Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-05-23
OF Irish LHinq,
.Rocy Erudite
And Eerie
FIELD OF THE STRANGER
BY Olivia Robertson. Random
House; 49,
Reviewed by
MARY McGRORY.

House; 49,
Reviewed by
MARY McGRORY.
From the green hills of Ireland,
Olivia Robertson has summoned
up as beguiling a batch of eccen-
tries as ever talked their way
through a book. Not so much a
novel as a collection of off-center
points of view, Field of the
Stranger" faithfully records a
steady stream of comments from
such choice Anglo-Irish types as
lordly 11-year-old brat, who must
never be crossed, his great-uncle, a
composer who trains rats, and a
retired colonel, who becomes choleric
over the stupidity of Russian de-
tective story" called Crime and
Punishment"
To tell her slight but voluble story
of the invasion of newly rich
family into the stiff-necked little
village of Mandoran, Miss Robertson
has calmly placed herself in the
center of the proceedings. This de-
vice, which only occasionally smacks
of the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES system
of the classroom, enables her to
move about observing the attitudes
of the villagers (they are always
overwrought) and inducing them to
speak their minds (Which is never
difficulty.
The sense of the past hangs
heavily on this particular (and
peculiar) corner of the valley OF the
Slaney. Ghosts and CORY legends
cluster thick around Mount Grange,
where the Mertan-Clinches, fat
tened on ill-got gains from tene-
ments and laundries. propose to
intrench themselves. Blood-curdling
prophecies and miraculous cures
emanate harrowingly from Mr..
Hare, the hermit-medicine man who
operates in a corner of the Field of
the Stranger held by his family
since Cromwellian times. 1t is
scarcely an atmosphere geared to
the mink wearing, back-biting, exis-
tentialist- minded Merton-ClincheS,
whose coming is heralded by a
liberal spreading-about OF rat poison
which carries off far more valuable
livestock than Warwick st. Leger's
pet rodents and permanently poisons
the minds Of both castle and village
tou,o ri tho pawcOmerS
The bewilderment of Mandoran
toward the Merton Clinches' goings-
on is entirely reciprocated. The
English chauffeur, for instance, who
had expected the Irish to be
Jolly, chatty lot, full of smiling
eyes and blarney and Jokes" feels
cheated to find that there is hardly
word out of them except about
sugar beet or heifers or cancer"
His reaction to a typical Irish TO-
nance, 20-year courtship uncon-
cluded because of the fear OF both
parties that their mothers might
take bad turn" is beyond words.
Everything is resolved, however, by
the young Merton-Clinch's presen-
tation of an original drama COM
plete with atonal music and Freud
ian chorus, of a play called "Oedipus
OHara," which makes theatrical
and social history in Mandoran.
AS a study of village life, Field
of the Stranger" will not remind you
of Crawford 1t is by turns racy,
erudite and eerie. 1t touches on a
number of aspects of Irish life: The
Anglo-Irish who persist in regard
ing the natives as them; the in
durable Celtic revivalist, the exodus
of the young people to the cities,
the rigid Irish matriarchy," the
Irish country bus ride, which seems
to be the acme of hilarious good
fellowship. Miss Robertson, who has
illustrated the book with suitably
whimsical drawings, never strains to
be funny. With such characters, all
she has to do is stand back. They
do the rest, and make you laugh out
loud. ~ X
THE DAMSEL DEBONAIRE
BY Maurice Walsh. II. B. Lip
pincott,: S275.)
Mr.. Walsh, an old and sure hand
at the game, is also writing about
Ireland, but he concentrates on the
romantic, rather than the bizarre,
aspects of the life.
All the ingredients of high ro-
nance and high adventure are here:
A fine old castle and its master 60
ing to seed, a pair of high-spirited
young ladies, a mysterious, we'll
spoken tramp; some handsome
horse flesh and bad blood between
the young master and a would-be
usurper of the old family seat.
Even though you can easily pre-
dict down to the last blow and sigh
how it is all going to come out from
the minute Mary Morris lays eyes
on young Robin Morrison, it is q
pleasure to follow the fights and the
races and the womanly wiles. Mr..
Walsh has humorous and leisurely
touch, knows all about trout, horses
and travelling showmen and other
such important matters. His dia-
logue is good, too, with some fine
turns of speech, and the scenery is
grand. THE Damsel Debonaire'
provide a fine way to spend a sum-
mer afternoon. M. Meg.
MY UNCLE AND MISS
BY Robert Parrish. (Beechhurst;
$275D
As the jacket says, it is futile to
try to describe MY Uncle and Miss
Elizabeth" To say that it is
detailed accounting of my
Uncle" would be partly true, but
more is encompassed both in lack
adaisical humor, and subtle pro-
f1lpditics MicS Elizahe is rraSept