LOW EBB
THE UNDEFENDED GATE, by Susan Ertz; Hodder and Stoughton. English price, 12/6. NO MORE MEADOWS, by Monica Dick- | erfs; Michael * Joseph. English price, 12/6. | THE BIG CHARIOT, by Charmian Clift | and George Johnston; Angus and Robertson; Australian price, 18/9. DARK NOON, by | Helen Heney; Angus and Robertson. Australian price, 16/-. : » . HE novel, we all know, is both simultaneously a product of artistic sensibility and an article of commerce. Many novelists contrive not to draw too much attention to the latter fact. It is (continued on next page) |
BOOKS (continued from previous page) ather too apparent in some of the work of the writers I am dealing with today. Susan Ertz describes with skill and a certain gusto the invasion of a well-to-do English home by a scheming disant relative from Canada and her unattractive son. The adventuress, when her first success as a seductress is thecked, establishes a sort of reproachful and _ retrospective sincerity by suicide. The Undetended Gate bears most of the stigmata of the best-seller. In No More Meadows Monica Dickens explores the difficulties of AnglcAmerican marriage with a kind of glib competence which would be more acceptable if she did not always run for cover to densely-growing thickets of domestic detail. Life at the surface level is her forte. In The Big Chariot two Australian writers go frankly to 17th Century China for a suitable field-for their romantic cravings. This account of the fortunes of two brothers in the conflict between the Ming dynasty and the in--vading Manchus has its own merit, but would have benefited by a restriction of the action in time. The emotional difficulties created: by the return of a girl after six years of captivity among the aborigines in Australia one hundred years ago provide Helen Heney with a promising theme which she has treated with sincerity, but also with a certain clumsinéss. And need everyone have been so rigorously high-
minded?
David
Hall
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19531009.2.26.4
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 743, 9 October 1953, Page 13
Word count
Tapeke kupu
323LOW EBB New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 743, 9 October 1953, Page 13
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in