BOOK FOR MOTHERS
CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE, by Nan Fairyl! the Hogarth Press, English price HE author spends the war years in an old house in the country, with her two small sons. She moves gently through the four seasons: observing her children and the countryside, and read-
ing and thinking. Her interests are astonishingly varied, and all her comments imbued with a’philosophical calm rare for both her sex and sophistication. Her style, indeed, is impeccable: gentle irony devoid of malice, humour without vulgarity, scholarship without skite, and love that is never maudlin, illumine everything she touches. The reader is caught in a spell that reminds him of his favourite authors, and favourite pictures, and most cherished memories of child and parenthood; and yet this first book is quite unlike any other book, except for the certainty that, like other favourites; it ae be read again and again. The reviewer is nonetheless in a quandary. Having made his judgment in a series of assertions, he needs pages of quotations to justify them; and there is no room for that. He dare not take one sample from so rich a store, any more than he would take a recipe to prove a cook-book, But if any young family wants to give Mum a book, this
1s it.
A.
V.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540716.2.24.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 782, 16 July 1954, Page 14
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218BOOK FOR MOTHERS New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 782, 16 July 1954, Page 14
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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.
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