Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-08-05


committing distance Of New
York.
The fame of the Sibleys was
built around the father, Will
liam Huntington Sibley. a
scholar who specialized in
peace movements and was
finishing a colossal history of
international arbitration.
Mrs. Sibley was a formidable
lady, who was used to having
her way. The sons and daugh-
tiers grew UP with special apti-
tudes and talents, each headed
toward what the family called
distinction in some field. The
boys went to Princeton. were
athletes and good students.
One became a lawyer; an
other. a disappointed novelist,
attained a certain reputation
as critic and literary essayist.
But the youngest son Noah,
whose story this is, was the de-
pair of his elders. He didn't
seem to have the proper Sibley
ambition. He was content to
teach history in boys prep
school, and, although he was
a great success in that par
ticular field, beloved alike by
boys and faculty. it was no
adequate career for Sibley.
Family Takes Charge
Finally. a year after the
father died. still frustrated by
the failure of publishers to ap-
preciate the Importance of his
history and publish it. Noah's
mother and his two elder
brothers. appeared at the
school. They wanted Noah to
take over the executive post
of the Sibley Memorial Foun-
dalton, which had been estab-
lished with the family's surplus
wealth. He could carry on his
fathers great work. The job
didn't appeal to Noah, but he
had always been dominated
by his family and he didn't
have the courage to refuse.
' Earlier Noah had been in
vited for a week end at the
home of his old sweetheart,
Natalie, now married to an
advertising executive and
mother of two children. Noah
wondered, as he had so often,
what had happened to the
romance that fiourished one
summer, IS years ago, at the
lake in Vermont where the
Sihleys always spent their
summers.
It had never occurred to
Noah. as now it did gradually,
that the family dominance had
been a bad thing for him; that
it had kept his personality in
straitiacket. In the days
ahead. with the help of his
sister Connie. the only one who
had always seen through the
family, he began to realize
that there was much that was
phony about the Sibleys. Even
DR.. Sibley, likeable as he had
been. emerged in perspective
largely as a fraud, with his
scholarship wasted on a hol-
low project; his wordy articles
In learned journals, his bonn
bastic lectures.
Son Enlightened
Noah began to understand
why one daughter-in-law. shell
tered by the family while her
husband was away at war,
rushed of to Reno to escape,
and another daughter-in-law
cracked up and went to a sani-
tarium for a while. The Sib-
leys never were crude-their
manners were impeccable-
and yet they wanted to take
charge of everyone around
them.
Noah's final declaration of
independence. his decision to
lead his own life, emerged
gradually from a set of circum-
stances. The ending is some
thing Of a shock. but not too
implauSible.
This is a theme that prob
ably would have appealed to
J. P. Msrquand. 1t seems to
me that Mr.. Maier has done
as well with it, in its essentials,
as anyone could. The story is
what you might call natural
istic satire; it is never over
drawn. There are families like
the Sibleys.
1t might have been more
dramatic II Mr.. Maier had not
followed a method dear to Mr..
Marquand. that Of moving
backward and forward, never
straight ahead for more than
few chapters. Sometimes,
too. the story could have
moved faster and with less de-
tail.
Just the same. The Won