Evening star., 1949-11-27
EVERYWHERE I ROAM

Mr.. Burman describes in his new
novel the hopeful and hopeless
odyssey of a homespun character
as engaging as any we've had in
recent fiction.
Captain Asa Ga name, not a
title) came out of his cabin in the
Cumberland Mountains, some
where on the border between
Kentucky and Tennessee, to take
the road with his three motherless
children. Ula was just about
grown, as pretty as they came. The
boy. vergil, was II. and the young
er girl, Fernie, pressing Is. They
hitched their horse to a home
made trailer and started out to see
the world.
But it wasn't curiosity that
drove Captain Asa from the cabin
where his father and grandfather
had lived, from the acres they had
farmed for a sight of years. No,
the steel mill had moved in near
by; that on top of the coal mines
that had already begun to ruin
things. AS he told an old hill
man: BUNS hanging around pool
halls playing them juke boxes, and
everybody getting drunk and
shooting and cutting all the time.
I could stand it, reckon. But 1t
sure amt a place for my children" T"
50 Asa set out in search of
a place where people lived the
way they used to. Once or twice
in their long wanderings he
thought he'd found it, but some
thing always came up to disil-
lusion him. AS the shrewd car
nival man they met told Asa. sure,
times were good 40, so years ago.
But people was worrying then,
and things was changing. That's
nature. And you can't beat ma
ture noways." And the car
nival man added: You amt 60
ing to keep your family from
growing up and leaving you,
neither. Won't make any differ
ence where you take EN-"
Asa didn't believe that, but he
found out 1t was true. First, the
older girl Ula ran off and mar
ried a boy that was no earthly
good at anything except getting
into trouble. Railroading lured
Asa's vergil. and Fernie-well, she
met that foreign fellow in East
st. Louis and took a liking to
him for some reason Asa couldn't
fathom. Asa tried hard to mod
ify his prejudices and adapt
himself to modern ways. To an
extent he succeeded. but some
things he couldn't give up.
Asa is no caricature Of noun
taineer. He's as real as tall
pine, as American as apple pie.
Pathos and amusement mingle in
his story. There is sharp excite
ment In some of the episodes that
overtake the wandering family.
The author of BLOW for a
Landing" and Steamboat Round
the Bend" to mention only two
of his novels, makes you see and
feel the varying regions his ad-
venturers pass through. Mr.. Bur-
man is inclined. true enough. to
build up his descriptions with too
many grandiose SMILES out Of the
ology and mythology. but his syn
tax always is simple and easy
to read, an asset not to be
scorned or taken for granted.
Everywhere I Roam" Is perhaps
mis- best novel.
X + r +
DOG ON THE SUN
BY Paul Green. UNIVERSITY OF
North Carolina Press; $3J
Out Of another region, as COM
pletely American, as anchored to
tradition by generations clinging
to the same countryside, comes
this collection Of revealing stories.
Mr.. Green, who has won con-
siderable fame as a dramat1st
and short-story writer, writes OF
the Cape Fear River country in
Eastern North Carolina-a land
settled long ago by sturdy Scottish
emigrants. These stories run a
gamut from the legendary and the
amusing to the modern and dra-
matte. They deal with Negroes.
mostly from families as long on
the land as the white people; with
share-croppers and with some OF
the grand clans. Although these
stories are strongly regional, they
have, like all perceptive stories.
. universal application; people do
not differ 30 much except in their
outer aspects.
The opening story, 1.-THE Girl