Evening star., 1952-03-04

HVSS4U4C WOI1llS 11C OpcIdVcS upO1
IS merely the most absurd and that
cheerful as one can be under the
circumstances.
He has worked up an impressive
volume of good cheer in new
novel, Grand Right And Left"
Literate humans who have found
the rest of life disappointing will
read it with a grateful sense that
MIR. Kronenberger has redeemed a
few hours for them On his own.
in the privacy of his creative
mind, he is a contagiously happy
author freed from the bondage Of
dramatistS who are his writing in
feriors.
Grand Right And Left" is a
novel in high farce style about
Gordon Cary. who is the richest
man in the world. He has nine
billion dollars, a 300-room town
house in New York, the greatest
collections of everything, and this
above all. the qualities to make
him fascinating farce figure. He
is a kind of brilliantly dramatic
reprisal upon the scores of un-
dramatic characters Mr.. Kronen-
berger is forced to look at in his
regular work as drama critic.
Grand Right and Left" X-rays
Gordon at one crisis of his fabu-
lous life. He has run out of
everything to collect, including
such novelties as buffer states and
the wrong half of Chicago" He
is in the hands of a great, but now
desperate psychiatrist whose pro-
fessional pride is terrified that
Gordon'S renowned palace -mu-
scum may become a mere mad
house.
Thanks to the inspiration of
Gordons third wife-theSe he did
not collect with his usual insati-
able appetite-this is at least de-
layed.
why not collect celebrities?"
she asks, and the Cary menage
trembles with an excitement the
like of which even it has never
known.
Winston Churchill, it turns out,
is Surlily unavailable. Not so,
however, such others as an Eng
lish Duke with a hawklike pro-
file and no face at all";; an
Intellectually savage woman who
has written some of the best
satire Of her day; a famous French
diplomat who has become such a
paragon there is no place for him
to go in the service. and the lat
ter's niece, a 26-year-old widow
who Is a paragon in her way, too.
Mr.. Kronenberger's way Of |
amusing himself with these are
exuberantly inventive and full of
wit.
Like Gordon. but less self1shly 4
his purpose in collecting this as
sortment of celebrities is to make
them entertaining. This he does
by letting them work out a series
of relationships possible only to
collected celebrities-the kind that
become private property, and not
Elsa Maxwell pawns. This, you
can be sure, is a refreshing snarl
OF lives and the dialogue ac-
compartment is model for play
wrightS capable of recognizing a
good line when they see one.
Perhaps because he is so tired
OF judging other mems characters,
Mr.. Kronenberger avoids passing
visible judgment on his own. He
does not condemn them for weak
ness in their willingness to be
collected, nor does he judge Cor
don Cary for collecting such bril-
liant human bric-a-brac.
For the purposes Of Grand
Right and Left" he regards col
lecting celebrities as private prop
erty, as pure satirical fun. He
sees to it that readers of his
novel shall get the same impress
sion. 4
AS a drama critic, Mr.. Kronen-
berger is the envy of his COL
leagues for the clarity and economy
Of his style. In both qualities, his
reputation is virtually notorious
and Grand Right and Left" is
full confirmation of it.
Most Interestingly tangled OF
the lives in the novel are those
of Gordon and the young French
widow and Of this pair with that
of Gordon's third, and current,
wife. This latter is the authors
wisely chosen favorite among his
creatures. She is an attractive.
intelligent woman who rose from
caoiol coorakorx, 70 Ar.ct