THE BETTER SELF
THE MAN WHO MADE FRIENDS WITH HIMSELF, by Christopher Morley; Faber and Faber, London. English price, 10/6. HRISTOPHER MORLEY writes his own kind of novel, and is so cheerful about it that the critic is disarmed. The man who needs his own friendship is a literary agent, a little disturbed by phantoms, and conveniently in love with a female psychiatrist. Fantasy encroaches so deeply. that Richard Tolman is able to describe the search for his Better Self up to the moment when he dies while trying to rescue a friend fron: a burning restaurant. This is a remarkable feat of authorship: the long chapter which ends with the fire must have been written, and the manuscript left in a. safe place, all in a matter of seconds. But such criticism may be ineffectual against a novel which is most of all a sustained meditation, sprinkled with quotations (and deliberate misquotations) fror..‘ authors classical and modern, } . Morley sets out to enjoy himself; and readers who do not object o knowing exactly where they are, or what they are expected to believe, may still find it possible to enjoy the
literary and amorous gossip.
H.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 557, 24 February 1950, Page 15
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196THE BETTER SELF New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 557, 24 February 1950, Page 15
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