BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20263, 4 August 1937, Page 10

BOOKS AND WRITERS

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS. A few or us boys were playing: out of doors, but one was not allowed to play because he was In mourning - . I offered to chang-e clothes with him We went up a passage and did this, and then he disported gravely in his game and I sat on a cold stone and wept sadly Tor I never knew whom”—Late Sir James Barrie.

NOEL COWARD. AS SEEN BY MR NATHAN. "CLEVER PARLOUR ENTERTAINER" George Jean Nathan says of Noel, Coward, in the Saturday Review of Literature: Just what, in the cool appraisal of any sound critical eye, is this Mr Coward’s position in the art of the drama? It seems to me that his position is that of an extremely fertile and unusually clever parlour entertainer, no more and surely no less. In the concoction of trifles he is as skilful a hand as we have in the present-day English-speaking theatre. In the French theatre, Sacha Guitry is immeasurably his superior in every way in such matters; the two cannot even remotely be compared. And in the Austro-Hungarian theatre, Ferenz Molnar, when he goes in for the more trifling comedy, so far outdistances him that he remains only faintly visible to the oritioal telesoope. But on the stage that uses the English language (often to the embarrassment of many of its actors) he has few competitors—now that such genuinely talented and vastly more important fellows as Maugham 'have retired — when it comes to the craft of fabricating light and easy dramatic diversion. A Baffled Amateur. Beyond this, however, Mr Coward has thus far indicated nothing. When he has essayed, in such full-length plays as “ The Vortex,” ** Post-Mor-tem," and " Point Valaine " and in such shorter exhibits as " The Astonished Heart " and “ Still Life " to dig somewhat deeper into the dramatic mine and to ferret out the profounder thoughts, emotions, and reactions of men and women, he has uniformly revealed himself to be Jittle miOre than a baffled and, truth to tell, rather ridiculous amateur. His ability is the ability deftly to scratoh the surface of the pretty icing that covers the pastry of fashionable humanity and to ejaculate, sometimes wittily, sometimes with an air of assiduous indifference, but always with charming manners, the surprising news that what Is under the icing is really Just pastry, and rather sweetly nauseating pastry at that, and not the “ Novum Organum ” or a layer of priceless rubies. LITERARY PRIZES. £750 FOR WRITERS. AUSTRALIA’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY. Short story writers, poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists throughout Australia, New Zealand and the British South Paciflo Islands are invited to enter literary competitions for which prize money totalling £750 is being offered by Australia’s 150th Anniversary Celebrations Council. Of the prize money £250, to be known as the “ Commonwealth Literary Prize,” will be awarded for the best novel published or accepted for publication in book form during 1937. The balance will be allotted as follows : Short Story.—£Bo first prize, £2O second prize. Full length play.—£l2s first prize, £25 second prize. Short* Poem.—£so first prize, £lO second prize. Short Essay.—£so first prize, £lO second prize. Long Essay (biographical, critical or historical). —£100 first prize, £3O second prize. The subjects are left entirely to the contributor, no entry forms are required. no entry fees are charged, and no definite limit in words or lines has been set with regard to the short story, short poem, and short essay. Works entered for the competition must not have been published in any form hut all rights are reserved to the authors. To be eligible for the prizes, writers must be either born or naturalised in Australia, New Zealand or the 'Brit- : ish South Pacific Islands, or a bona nde resident of any of these places for three years preceding the closing date of the competitions, December 31, 1937. CHINA AND JAPAN. CONTRAST IN MENTALITY. MUST 'BE A -COMPROMISE. In " The Green Edge of Asia,” by Richard Pyke, a sharp distinction Is drawn between the Chinese and the Japanese mentality, and yet between these neighbours there must some day. in a shrinking world, be a compromise, a reckoning of some sort. A fascinating feature of this book lies in the pictures suddenly flashed on Hie eye, the theatre with its performance so queer to western ideas going on in its gorgeously coloured traditional way in the midst of chatter, family life, eating, deafening noise, occasional applause, and dirt; the Hall of the Four Temple Guardians of Ling-Yin; a funeral procession—or is it a wedding?—passing along a narrow street; or possibly ihe surprising first sign of Fujiyama from the sea. The Double Life. There is the question of the. double life, the old eastern life running par- j allel with the encroaching western i side. How long will it last? There are little pictures like tin's:— " I put my hand in my pocket as I ! heard above me the professional moan of a blind woman sitting in the middle of the path, who had heard my approach. My softness induced a child soiling Budhist rosaries to try his luck, but my smile provoked" his laugh, and he bundled the necklaces back into his basket. He tried me with an apple; 1 put my hand in my pocket and showed him one; he tried not to smile and offered me an orange. ,i Continued In next column.)

FIBHINQ IN AUSTRALIA. FINEST IN THE WORLD. BOOK BY ZANE GREY. When Zane. Grey was fishing In Sydney, says Sydney Sun, he said that he would write a book on Australian fishing, but In " An American Angler In Australia” he has done much more than that. He has told the world In no measured terms that Australia Is a fine place, and that the fishing to be had, particularly In New South Wales waters, is superlative. The book, as its name Implies, is one for anglers, and although those who seek to lure the brown or rainbow trout from their deep pools with j tiny fly and fine cast may not find ! much that will interest them mention j is made of fresh-water fishing in ! Australia. Unfortunately Mr Grey did not ! sample of our fine trout fishing whilst he was here,, but we hope when he returns that he will write a book on the joys and tribulations of j this sport in as enthusiastic terms as i he has dealt with our big game fish- j ing. The grateful thanks of every man ' who has the promotion and development of Australian fishing at heart should go out to Zane Grey for this very fine volume. I cannot do better than quote the concluding paragraphs of his book— The Greatest Game Fish. “I have beel ridiculed and criticised for claiming that Australia’s thirteen thousand miles of coast would yield the greatest game fish of any waters yet discovered in the world, and all the year round. “After five years of correspondence with Australian scientists, missionaries, market fishermen, and sportsmen, and seven months of practical and strenuous observation and fishing, I stake my reputation that Australia will yield the most Incredible and magnificent big-game fish of known and unknown species that the fishing ; world has ever recorded. Added to j what I Just wrote about Great Bar- ! rler fish, let me record one more ' fact. ‘‘l have located broadblll swordfish, the genuine Zlphias gladius, In the shallow waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria, spawning on the white sand, as thick as fence pickets I" ! The book Is Illustrated with some ' remarkable action photographs of thresher, mako and grey nurse sharks, and some splendid pictures of black and striped marlin leaping from th* water. MARGARET LANE’S NEW NOVEL. SOME DELICATE PORTRAITS. PEOPLE INTERESTINGLY ALIVE. Margaret Lane revealed her outstanding gifts as a novelist with her first book, published about 18 months ago. "Faith, Hope, No Charity," was a Daily Mail Book of the Month selection, and has recently been awarded I the Femina Vie Heureuse prize. “At Last the Island" will increase the author’s reputation. The outlines are even firmer, the 1 descriptions more brilliant, and the portraits more delicate and sympathetic. I All Miss Lane’s people are intensely alive—from the middle-aged novelist who expects to find in life on a Medi- j terranean island a solution of his financial and temperamental problems, j to a small girl in spectacles who asks for little more than to be left alone with her collection of pressed flowers. The Broker’s Man. The novelist’s wife and former housekeeper by no means shares his enthusiasm for exile. It will mean the end of her seances, farewell to her j well-equipped kitchen, endless cooking I for an exacting gourmet under perhaps impossible conditions. I The intervention of a broker’s man, 1 though staggering to her middle-class pride, at least provides a respite. When tiie household at length leaves . Elizabeth Street (prematurely, as it turns out) it includes an American girl who has been working for a year at the Slade. She is in love with a young Journalist, and he with her; hut each feels hound to overcome this love. They arc responsible for the best and most stimulating conversations in a book remarkable for the ease and scope of Its dialogue. Miss Lane seldom allows the ventilation of ideas to impede action. The Climax. f It is not until more than half-way through the hook that the Journey projected in the first chapter takes place. The house on the lovely but unfriendly island Is as derelict as j Malsle suspected, but that is the least of the troubles in store for the exiles. Miss Lane leads up to a climax of catastrophe—the arrest of the novelist, the death of his son, the frustration of every hope. The American girl alone emerges from the wreck with the prospect of a new life offering happiness and fulfilment. The reader, as he takes his leave of these creatures of Miss Lane’s imagination, is almost startled to discover how completely their fortunes have absorbed his mind.