TIDY VILLAS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 655, 25 January 1952, Page 17

TIDY VILLAS

ENGAGEMENT IN BANGKOK, by F. Y. ine Jonathan Cape. English price, 12 WAY, by Eric Hodgins; Michael Joseph. English price, 10/6. YOUNG MAN, by Kay Dick; Heinemann. Atistralian pricé, 13/6. NE would not want to camp for life in Salisbuty Cathedtal, ior for that matter in Castle Kafka or the Tolstoi palaces. The inh, thé small house, even the hut, if atchitecturally less impressive, are still pleasant places for human habitation. In the world of the novel, then, how satisfying at times the brisk compétently told story, not greatness, but serviceable narrative where the writet lite & gefitléman aims to please and not to overpower. Engagémént in Bangkok is stich a story. A young afd simple fellow spends a year or so if Siam. His love affairs are pure stock (cool man in hot countty), but his platonic encounters include sotne eccentric amusing charactets of the type one meets too rarély outside detective fiction. F. Y. Thompson has an eat for dialogue atid the background which he portrays is convincing. Blandings’ Way is a sequel to Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Howse, the Anierican best-seller of 1947. Like ite predecessor, oti which it in, no way depends, the new book is chéerfuilly funny, satire without a snarl. The sacred fites of the advertising religioti are révealed and mocked, but the attitude of the author is affectionate and not really irrevérent. Young Mari is a dull and rather pretentious book. Much of it reads like a parody of certdin moderti novelists.

D. N.

W.