STUDIES IN REALISM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 669, 2 May 1952, Page 13

STUDIES IN REALISM

MORNING STAR, by J. L. Hodson; Victor Gollancz. English price, 12/6. THE FLOWER IN THE GUTTER, by lon Braby; Michael Joseph. English price, 12/6. THE SLOW TRAIN HOME, by Dorothy Cowlin; Jonathan Cape. English price, 12/6. COME AGAIN, by Sarah Campion; Peter Davies. English price, 9/6. R. HODSON and Mr. Braby, in their different ways, have written a pair of admirable realistic novels, which set together shock and startle by the contrast they form. Mr. Hodson’s story is of a newspaper in the north of England and the fight of its editor, a 19th Century Liberal at heart, to save it from absorption into a combine. The issue is the preservation of individuality. The colour and character of Lancashire makes enjoyable reading, but somehow seems to belong to a past age. Mr. Braby has taken his theme from Berlin under the Russian occupation, starting in the last days of German resistance and continuing into the early occupation period. The issue is survival. The dreary, hopeless monotony, punctuated with bursts of panic or violence, is perfectly recaptured; the book is almost unbearably dreary to read, but it is a superb piece of work. Dorothy Cowlin’s story, also of Northern England, is slighter but good work all the same. Her picture of the hero’s reintegration is too external to be convincing, but the background and other (continued on next page)

BOOKS

(continued from previous page) persons are authentic and enjoyable. Sarah Campion, too, has backgroundsof the Australian outback-more authentic than the action she places against them; but readers should not be put off by her almost intolerable introductory

chapter.

D. M.

Anderson