Evening star., 1949-03-06

dllo yCU CoS14 GAL ctA4ANASASNSt 1900
appeared Friday. and MIR. Marquis
Mr.. Lewis has written a histt
sionaries to the Indians in a MI
and with the settlement of St.
Paul. While there are touches OF
the humor, insight and sympathy
of earlier books, THE God
Seeker" is, on the whole. one OF
our Nobel Prize winners least
effective novels.
Mr.. Marquand, on the other
hand, has written one of his best
books. Despite it's lack of drama,
despite a static quality in the long
narrative, Point of No Return"
is first-rate example of the par
tieular ironical genre in which he
excels any other contemporary
American writer. 1t is another
landscape h-figures for Mr..
Marquand's New England gallery.
Toward Brotherhood.
In THE God-Seeker" Mr.. Lewis
has traced the career of Aaron
Gadd from boyhood in the Berk-
shire Hills of Massachusetts in
the 1830s. The son of a Calvin
ist deacon, a cold. hard man.
Aaron grew up troubled about re-
ligion. But as young carpenter
in a nearby town he had drifted
into the easier ways of the taverns
when there was a big revival
meeting. Aaron professed con-
version and later he answered the
plea of a missionary and fol-
lowed him to a mission among
the Dakota Indians on the wild
frontier of Minnesota. The youth
went as carpenter, intending TO-
study theology and be ordained|
later. He found ck-breaking
work at the primitive mission and
no time to study. He discovered
that few Indians gave more than
derisive attention to the little
group of evangelists Disillusioned,
he finally gave up and went to st.
Paul. We leave Aaron with a wife
and children, a successful con-
tractor in the swift growing town,
uncertain of his theology. but
convinced that he should contrib
ute what he can toward the
brotherhood of man.
Mr.. Lewis has had good time
delineating the harsh theology
popular in that day. Most of the
missionaries are more concerned
with hell than with salvation.
Doubtless, in an era of many
uneducated clergymen, there were
those like Rev. Harge." tactless.
lazy, slyly sensuous. and college
graduates like the stuffy. inef-
fectual Speezer. There also were
heroic men and women. At least
Mr.. Lewis has not made his mis-
sionarieS all racketeers, like the
preachers in Elmer Gantry," but
has conceded most of them sim
cerity. His sympathy with the
Indians is not misplaced. His
evangelists hated rival faiths as
much as they detested sin-a con-
dition which unfortunately has
not entirely ended today.
Romantic Interest.
Aaron's romantic interest Sc
lene, educated expensively in the
East, changes overnight from a
snob who talks airily of counts
into a worker at the mission, will
ing to do the washing. She has
merely broken with her father, a
wealthy fur trader. The last IS
pages are an anticlimax, because
Mr.. Lewis simply refuses to end
the book Characters unconcerned
with the story fit in and out.
Aaron shelters a fugitive slave
probably a rarity in that north
ern outpost that would have
caused the town to turn out.
Aaron also organizes a union
among his employes-for no par
ticular reason except that Mr..
Lewis has determined that if his
hero cannot stomach the theology
he has been fed, at least he can
become a social idealiSt.
THE God Seeker" is more cred
ible and better written than
"Kingsblood Royal" Which does
not say much for the new novel.
and is not intended to. 1t has
its moments, but there is little
in it to remind a reader that its
author once wrote a novel called
"ArroWsmith.
Explaining Charles.
MIR. Marquand's Point Of No
Return" opens with Charles Gray
settled down to career. He
is in his early 40s. assistant
vice president of a small but
GRANTEES sound New York bank.
He has wife and two children, a
home in Weschester and belongs
to a country club. A vice presi-
dency at the bank is vacant, and
it is a question of whether Charles
or another young man OF equal
experience and status will get the
office. Charles whole future seems
to hinge around this promotion,
which is delayed inexcusably.
While we are waiting for the bank
president. Burton, to make up his
mind, Mr.. Marquand takes us back
to Charles home town, a small
port in Massachusetts called
Clyde. Most of the book is one
long .backtrack into Charles
earlier life.
Since we know what happened
to Charles during his 18 years
away from Clyde-Whom he mar
ried, how far he got in business
his youthful romance with the
Clyde girl and his vocational
f1,nohlinps after leaving Dart