NOVEL SAMPLER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 671, 16 May 1952, Page 13

NOVEL SAMPLER

| 4 LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, by Mary Jane Ward; Victor Gollancz. English price, 10/6. A BRIGHTER SUN, by Samuel Selvon; Allan Wingate. N.Z. price, 11/6. FLIGHT EASTWARD, by John Fores; Jonathan Cape. English price, 12/6. MY FELLOW DEVILS, by L. P. Hartley; James Barrie. N.Z. price, 12/6. ROCK WAGRAM, by William Saroyan; Faber and Faber. English price, 15/-. OTHER can be tiresome; but the Grindleys go in for toughness; the Chapins just go bats or spend "Grindley dollars on drink and Agatha.-One is embarrassed when a girl like Rebe-not the friend one would have chosen-sings out in a drug store full of servicemen. Now is the time for all good girls to stop being so damned good. Elizabeth tried hard enough with Scott, but all that came to was a monument, flood-lit. But this Mary Jane’ goes too far when she makes Jeanette-mother to you-re-marry, and one’s consolation prize is headship of a conservatorium of music. O, the anguish of being a woman and forty. But father played a cracking game of tennis, didn’t he?

In Trinidad life is a helluva thing, oui. But look how Ah take up meself and leave sweetman life in town, look how Ah leave de boys coasting, and come up here to live wid you in de bush! Indian sticks to Indian. Come down to Tall Boy’s and fire one, man. Tiger says this Selvon milk cow for rum. Is good, because Indian, nigger, Merican even, all rum in: the Lord. Is good. But: poor Urmilla, what he do to she! And now three hundréd miles of sea to Malta. A weak front, Marseilles had said, Straight and level now, skipper, I'm taking a sight. Tell the passengers to tighten their safety belts, even though nothing much will happen till the forced landing at Domani on page 87. This Fores was a navigator, so navigator Roberts has to do a line with Anne, take her for a swim, save her from rape. But old Pendleton collars the pearls at Calcutta. We’re not in the air all the time, but perhaps we'll take the boat back. All the sandwiches were ham. The cake was very sweet, and Mar- | garet lived in an’enchantment which en- | abled her to enjoy the present without providing for the future, like a happy healthy person who sees but does not feel the need to make a will. But even a woman J.P., full of judgment and good works, can fall in love with a film star and get married in Venice. This’ Hartley has been reading Cary, but not enough. Colum is a thief and a liar. Nick is | terribly Mey but he, too, falls nee ntinued on next page)

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(continued from frevious page) > Colum. What is there left to Margaret, besides the child? Well, of course, Colum’s church; at the end her heart shouted and sang with recognition. This is truly myself. I have all this hair and all these teeth. You are dying of falseness, your very own, which out of youth and luck and laziness you have permitted. It is time to die of falseness. It is time to begin again. When I woke up my whole life inside me wept. This Saroyan is Armenian, and Armenians have fine _feelings. It goes away back, beyond money, girls, drinks and the poker game. Whatever you pay them for their novels or their films-yes, another film star here-deep inside they stay good. They stay how a man sees himself, before the world musses him up, like a little boy stealing

watermelon.

David

Hall