BETWEEN THE ACTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 953, 15 November 1957, Page 15

BETWEEN THE ACTS

THE WIDENING CIRCLE, by John van Druten; Heinemann, English price 18/-. OT Mr van Druten’s first autobiographical venture, this volume exhibits the same alternation of memoir and essay as The Way to the Present. The author ranges from reflections on his desert home in Southern California to the themes of his plays and his conclusions on why they have been successful or, more rarely, have failed. Two things stand out: the contemplative style, easy and natural; and the character, rather, the disposition of the author. For all his maturity and success he remains eager, ingenuous; and he is wise. The loveliness of the Yosemite Valley is a treasure to be displayed, with some trepidation because the snow may have changed its aspect, to a friend who may or may not appreciate it-and if he does not, the day will be spoilt. Famous stage artists of the past, the author's boyhood heroines, remain revered, their few letters carefully cherished. We are told of places which, though they seem to have little in common, have had for the author "a special and _ personal magic’-The Isle of Skye, Haiti, Tobago, and a small village on the Dordogne. Books are discussed, the use of a personal journal, children’s books, books that lose virtue as one grows up and sees them critically. We are led casually round the author’s own shelves and given an idea of his tastes, and some shrewd asidgs about particular books. Mr van Druten confides in us that he has been reading C. S. Lewis’s "brief and mainly spiritual autobiography, Surprised by Joy." Mr Lewis’s quality of Joy has seized his imagination to such an extent that the latter part of the book is almost a testament and credo, divorced, nevertheless, from Mr Lewis’s convinced Christianity. It would be hard to read The Widening Circle without developing a liking, almost an

affection, for the author.

S.

P.