RECENT FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24421, 5 October 1940, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

Sarah at Seventeen Miss Cavan has leaded to a devotion for the purple passage and the Byronesque flow of satire both admirable in their place but a trifle incongruous when the plt.ce is a work, of fiction in the modern idiom Yet it has been possible to sense in her work a quick and sympathetic perception .of character and a capacity to write with style and precision.;, Both thest qualities are given a better chance tu display themselves uncrowded in Beneath the Visiting Moon, which has more affinity with" the sensitively humorous books of Margaret Kennedy than with the earlier masters of the Romantic age And the book though it is concerned with nothing more important than some children a lovely old house and the bitter-swefct. love Dangs of a girl of 17-is*admirable entertainment. The way of life of the Fontayne children, whose father was a politician of great brilliance whose mother is a woman of inconsequential charm, is rudely threatened when ■ Mrs Fontavne mar-

ries again, and introduces into her country home a remote gentleman with two very positive children of; his own, Miss Cavan observes closely, and with not too much malice, the clashes and adjustments occasioned when the several children, with their several standards of precocity and sophistication, are brought together. But central'to the story, is the growing-up of Sju-ah Fontayne. beautiful and impetuous in the first blush of womanhood, .who' woos ardently a promising diplomat of twice her years, and in his negligent. response to her approaches finds:the peak and sinks.to the abyss of emotional experience; The book is. a comedy,' arid remains ; on that plane throughout; it > is a comedy which is huma'nlv based upon the realities of character and conduct. :

Outward Bounders • This hovel I is an' to suggest a reasonable and possible after-life in an amusing- form. The author first collects a varied assortment pf charac ters, including an American bishop and his wife* two gangsters; a lady- of-easy virtuev. some:missionaries, and:-an 'lndian gymnosophist.'.ion, &■ luxury lim*and shows their reactions to each otherand to life, aiter'which: as the result of an unfortunate explosion in the ship's hold, owing to a fire reaching the gangsters' heavy luggage the whole shipload is precipitated rapidly and painlessly into the hereafter. They find themselves reassorted into totally different pairs, in a semi-spiritualistic landscape, where they retain, rather incomprehensibly, the bodies they had just lost,- and proceed to learn to adjust themselves to their new environment. The bishop, of course, finds himself alone with the light lady, the gangsters, in the best film tradition learn to love two dear little children, the missionary, who has suffered from a suppressed libido, gets a • chance to exercise it, which he does with the lushest accompaniments' Qf marble; halls and satin-lined boudoirs, and in fact everyone has a chance either to raise himself to saintly heights or to learn by wallowing, how unattractive is the sty Everything is very black and white. The Indian Yogi, who turns out to be very "High Up." wanders about like a peripatetic Cook's Guide to Heaven, admonishing, instructing, and generally giving that little shove behind that everyone, especially a bishop, requires from time to time The- end is happy in all cases, either at once or in the future, and for the real saints (misunderstood until the Hindu gentleman explains their moral elevation) a Victorian heaven of the most genuine quality is offered This would have been a far better book had Mr Kent used more half-tones. It is not unamusing. and some of the situations are entertaining, even if many of their possibilities have been missed But as a serious contribution to the solution of the problem of immortality, as suggested bv the dust-cover, it would be merelv Laughable Regarded as a fable, it has certain qualities and though even the most uncritical will detect somethina inadequate in the treatment of a fairly hackneyed, theme,. After This should fill up a long train iournev as well as the average thriller

" The Valiant Spinster " -An unashamedl, romantic and unapologetically sentimental tale is Sophie Cole's • latest, which is con-, cerried with the somewhat mixed motives and marriages of four people no longer voung. Clementine becomes the wife, from pity, of a man who has been cripDled in an accident. Brian 'feckless, kindly, unstable has on an equally quixotic impulse married a good-hearted but vulgar woman and left her at the church door. Friendship between Brian and Clementine i-eauires- some adjustment before it is (Irmly established upon a rather saccharinely platonic basis. But in this arrangement both find a great deal of warmth and silent understanding, not -.one whit disturbed by thebrcFence at their meetings of Clementinels' husband and Erian's goodnatured wife-in-name-only. It requires, a sentimentalist to write or to

Beneath the Visiting Moon. By Romilly Cavan (Heinemanh). After This. By Ryland Kent (Hodder and .Stoughton). The Valiant Spinster. By Sophie Coie (Mills and Boon). Secret Weapons. By J. M. Walsh (Collins). • No Exit. By Winston Graham (Ward, Lock). .The House ot Clystevill. By Berttfcm Atkey (Jenkins). This Doll is Dangerous. By Frank King (Hale). Each 8s 9d.

read this story with a proper apprehension of its charm, but Sophie Cole s public will not be disappointed by her human treatment of the theme. Secret Age**t British investigation ot German activity is t’’° theme of J. M. Walsh s thriller Secret Weapons. Incidentally he illustrates the jingle about big fleas having little fleas upon the t> backs to bite 'em. O K, Keene is sent to Germany to find out what Herr Hitler’s myrmidons are doing His credentials are approved by one and another of those who investigate them and finally he is admitted to headquarters. Then he discovers that spies and counterspies have spied on him, on those who passed him. and then again have been spied on —ad infinitum. He discoyers the secret weapon, escapes by a hairsbreadth, and brings the plans and ,'pecifications to England. No Exit ” This is an account in story form of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. John Carr is a British engineer who has been sent to Rumania on the business of hi;, firm. There he becomes involved quite unwittingly in matters political. Winston Graham gives a realistic picture of a nian, interested in his profession and even at home little interested in politics, who finds himself entangled in the curious intrigues of the Balkans. He is simply bewildered, does foolish things, and his lack of the German or Czech tongues adds to his difficulties Fortunately he'is, again unwittingly, able to help a group of Czech patriots and they enable him to reach Poland and so Great Britain The epilogue gives a vivid picture of a man who has reached peace after turmoil., safety after fear. Smiler Bunn Again Betram Atkey’s story, to which he has given the title The House of Clystevill, is a good thriller of the type in which the utterly impossible is strongly apparent. Smiler Bunn and his partner. Black, now well-to-do, have bought a country estate, equipped with good shooting and some nice fishing. Here .they propose, to come quietly to . the peace and _ leisure they have longed for many a time. But near by is the house run by the brothers Clystevill, and before many days the partners realise that there must be a straightening out of matters, which are terribly wrong. How the clearing up is done is told in a story which does not allow the reader to become bored. Another Crisis Averted This Doll is Dangerous is the latest, Dormouse thriller. Clive Conrad is approached : by Mrs Carter-Troup With an offer of £SOOO as a reward for removing from the safe' of . Maurice Lefevre a bundle of letters, Con Ad, alias the Dormouse, does the job, sees a man shot as he handles a celluloid doll,-has the papers taken from him, and only then begins to realise that he is fighting an unknown adversary who goes by the name of the Pilot. For a time Ns every move is forestalled, and thoug., he wins, a point here and there he faces failure But his partner, Alice Favcrsham, can move fast and can make very shrewd deductions. Realising that Conrad; is facing trouble of a serious type she fakes a hand on her own initiative and is instrumental in preventing an international crisis. Our copy of this book is from Whitcombe and Tombs. V. V. L.