AH VIRTUE! VIRTUE!
A TIME -TO LAUGH, by Laurence Thompson; Andre Deutsch, English price 8/6. A SINGLE PILGRIM, by, Norman Lewis; Jonathan Cape, English price 12/6. MR. PYE, by Mervyn Peake; Heinemann, English price 12/6. BEYOND THIS PLACE, by A. J. Cronin; Angus and Robertson, Australian price 16/-. / THE first of these novels,is a skilful comedy about the wuproarious adventures in the British Army in Libya of the softest of a Sudanese family. The hero, Gadein, a seraphic innocent, comes out unscathed at the end and we rejoice to see virtue triumph, especially as we had so much fun first seeing virtue kicked around. Norman Lewis in A Single Pilgrim displays the knowledge of South-East Asia one might have expected of so celebrated a traveller. This is another novel about a virtuous man beset by all sorts of trials-Crane, the middle-aged local manager of a British company exporting teak from Thailand. The tragic ending would have excited more compassion if Norman Lewis were better equipped to create living people rather than a skilful and interesting picture of a whole changing social order. Mr. Pye is a modern saint determined to convert to goodness the small Channel Island of Sark. He is overtaken by an unwanted testimonial to his success in the form of a pair of wings; getting rid of these by a judicious embracing of badness, he grows horns instead, and with the final painful triumph of virtue, is re-equipped as an angel. This_ is unabashed fantasy supported by a lively wit and some elegant drawings by the author. Cronin’s novel is inevitably a tearjerker in a big way. The son of an unjustly condemned murderer proves his | father’s innocence; virtue triumphs but. the hero loses touch with the heroine. It is good Cronin and is the fourth leg of a quartet which, however dissimilar otherwise, are alike in achieving what their author set out to achieve, all good of their kind-no mean feat these days.
David
Hall
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540212.2.20.4
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 760, 12 February 1954, Page 11
Word count
Tapeke kupu
329AH VIRTUE! VIRTUE! New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 760, 12 February 1954, Page 11
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