UNROMANTIC ROMANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 280, 3 November 1944, Page 20

UNROMANTIC ROMANCE

CLOSE-UP OF GUADALCANAL, By Stan. Andrews. Progressive Publishing Society. TANHOPE ANDREWS, producer of the Publicity Department’s Miramar Film Unit, calls his account of Guadalcanal a "closeup," and he writes to his title. He writes with great skill, economising adjectives, and using always the word that matches the fact. His style is quiet, even sober, but it is also vivid. What is such a war like as an experience? That is what a reader would most like to know. It is beastly and nasty, but it is also matter-of-fact. The writer, like the Americans who companioned him or showed him round, had a job to do and got on with his job, but he was also an observer, interested in the human reactions of all concerned to an unusual experience. So he enables you to comprehend how both mind and body behave under conditions of acute discomfort and of tension due to unseen hazards. Adventurers, notably our own Sir George Grey, have eulogised the bright face of danger. It may be doubted if even to them Guadalcanal would have revealed a particularly bright face. Mr. Andrews, whose style is almost laconic, nevertheless gets everything acrossthe humdrum footslogging, the hugging of the contours of an inadequate foxhole, the unspoken comradeship, the wearisome ordeal which is in essence heroic. The poet Crabbe, with his unfailing eye for what was dingy, depressing, down-at-heels and yet significant, might have done justice to Guadalcanal. But whether he would have captured the spirit of an undertaking that transcended such disagreeable surroundings may be doubted. The writer of "Close-up" has a scrupulous veracity not unworthy of Crabbe, and yet he is finely aware of the romance. Perhaps with his restraint, his dislike of high lights and climaxes, he has also added an authentic New Zealand note to his record of his experiences. He prefers these things to be implicit in his narrative. To those to whom his type of writing, sincere and sensitive, appeals, he will seem to have paid a fine tribute to our American

allies.

F.L.

C.

DEAD CITIES AND LIVE MEN FIGHTS AND FURLOUGHS (IN THE MIDDLE. EAST. By A. S. Helm. Whitcombe & Tombs, N R. HELM has gone a long way on his travels. He may also go a long way in his writing-if we may judge by the progress he makes in this book. Beginning amateurishly, fettered by cliches and incoherence, he gradually attains to vividness and clarity. The chapter on Greece. was good, "Campaign in Crete" was better, but his account of His journey to Baghdad hits you between the eyes. The "fights" will appeal to those who are interested in this war, and in our own small but gallant force in the Middle Eastern theatre. The "furloughs" will attract those of an antiquarian turn of mind, for whom the (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) — age-old names of Baalbek, Luxor and the "Rose-red city half as old as time," are keys to the locked-up legends of former civilisations. This kind of reader will not find many of the old-world wonders missing, because from the point of view of resourcefulness, Mr. Helm makes the Swiss Family Robinson look like tyros. He has been everywhere and seen everything, and if there was danger in the seeing, as when he penetrated the Khadimain Holy of Holies in disguise, we, too, feel the thrill of it, though (fortunately) we are thousands of miles from the fanatics who would have rent him limb from limb had he been caught. e Mosques, pyramids and dead cities are, however, dull things unless they are charged with humanity. The author has realised this, and there is sufficient of human warmth in his book to raise it from the level of a Baedeker or an historical survey A particularly telling incident is the account of the violent death of a friend Who had aided the author in his travels — shot by a thwarted lover. Helm states that the murderer, who had influence in high places, is still at large, and so gives an arresting reality to the atmosphere of the East he has already created objectively. There are moments, however, when the "furloughs" become too much of the guide book. It is a pity that it should be so, but we all have a congenital objection to being taught anything, and the average reader will find many of the historical disquisitions tedious. At other times the author is inclined to step in where angels would keep out, as when he suggests that Nazareth should be given a new name. The book is attractively printed (in these days when we expect bad printing and worse paper), and reasonably well bound. The photographic illustrations, which are plentiful, are excellently

reproduced.

D.M.

S.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT EIGHTY STANDARD WORDS A MINUTE, By T. L. James. Wright and Carman. COLLECTION of 40 dictation passages arranged and marked at 80 standard words per minute. Should be of value in saving teachers the work of preparing suitable marked practice passages.