Evening star., 1949-12-04
Fiction
By Carter Brooke Jones
Book Critic of The Star


wv able year for fiction.
It was easy to find five novels
of outstanding merit. In fact, the task was
to select only the customary five. There
were IL or Is others, perhaps more. that
approached excellence, that could be rec
commended without culver of conscience.
Last year was different so was the year
before. In neither year were there more
than two or three novels that could be
called completely frst-rate. It was mat
ter, after that, of sitting through great
many other fairish books for few that
seemed somewhat better than the rest
Experienced novelists turned out some
of their best work in 1919; newer writer's
began to fulfill earlier promise; there were
several highly creditable first novels.
Usually there is no pat reason for such
recrudescence of better writing and more
competent literary architecture. It Is
enough to be grateful to the authors who
turned out nearly score Of worthy novels
and to the publishers discerning enough tp
print and exploit them.
Two of the top novels of the year were
about the West. Both were historical.
though Of different periods, and they were
entirely divergent in theme and treatment.
A. B. Guthrie's new novel, ''The Way
West" gives us at last an enduring book
(surely it deserves to endure) about the
much-described Oregon trail, the begin
ming of the mass migration OF 1845. Mr.
Guthrie, it will be recalled, emerged from
obscurity to the front rank of contempo-
rary American writer's by means OF single
magnificent novel, "The Big Sky" in 1947.
That lyrical story of the mountain men in
the 1830s was followed this year by sequel
in chronology, though not in narrative.
with only one character, the Incompatible
Dick Summers. carried over. THE Way
ttn
beauty, of "The Big Sky is q greater
novel because of it's broader canvas OF
characters and events, its more universal
appeal It is written with artistic restraint
and poetic perception.
Rescuing the West
From the Westerns
Walter Van Tilburg Clark. with at least
two well-regarded novels to his credit.
brought out another Western novel OF
power and originality. For sheer writing.
nothing this year surpassed "The Track OF
the Cat" But, like all first-rate novels. it
is much more than writing. The picture OF
that shut-in. thwarted. pickering family on
the lonely Nevada ranch in 1900 is unfor-
gettable. So is the horror-haunted search
for the panther that killed cattle. The
symbolism of the story is Sketched Suotly.
There was time when our literature
was centered in New England, with even It's
more imaginative novelists rarely project
ing their stories into the wilderness that
lay beyond its borders. In later epoch.
the Middle West and the South found
chroniclers who stripped away the false
fronts and pictured life as it was being
lived. The appearance of two such fine
novels as 1.-The Way West" and 'The Track
of the Cat" the same year is clear indica-
ton that at last our serious novelists have
begun to rescue the West from the WEST
erns" of pulp novels. movies and radio and
to describe the country as it was and is.
After. two years that brought many war
novels. 1949 showed a sudden lapse OF in
terest in the war. A somewhat similar
pattern followed the First World War. with
novels of the fighting and its background
disappearing after three or four years. to
be revived later. And yet. perhaps not
too strangely, 1949 gave us what consider
the best combat novel Of the war-Van
Van Praags DAY Without End"
1949 Saw the Wars
Best Combat Novel
In brief space, without a single flash
back, the young author records the life and
death of a platoon in Normandy. The
book shows the impact of this bitter fight
ing on typical group of infantrymen. The
story is stripped of every unessential de-
tail There have been few stories of any
war with the chilling reality of this first
novel. A number of strong novels came
out of World War II. The trouble was the
authors tried to tell everything. especially
the heros frustrated boyhood and the per-
siStance of anti-Semitism and racial dis
elimination in our wars for democracy