MODERN NOVELIST WITH SCALPEL

Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 30

MODERN NOVELIST WITH SCALPEL

NCE upon a time, ;,0-one thought a novel was a novel unless it had plenty of talking and doing in it. But latterly, the rise of the "psychologist" has made it possible for a novel to be written about nothing more important than a spinster deciding to send her cat to the lethal chamber or a family | moving house. It is typical of our disillusioned and essentially bewildered generation that we are far more interested in the springs of action than in action itself-in ourselves than in life. This delight of post-war man in the dissection of his own psychical corpse has encouraged the writing of such books as Diana Patrick’s "Weave a Circle," which is an unashamed character study of an ordinary middleclass business man, an estate agent, and his family. The father’s aim to keep his children united even after they have grown up, and the way in which their developing personalities react to this check, form the sole theme of the book -apart from a few mild romantic complications, Readers who like a dash of robust movement in their novels had better not seek it here; All the same, "Weave a Circle" has a homely charm of its own that attracts more as the story continues. All the characters in the book are believable, friendly people, and Oliver Wynstable’s wife in particular is a personality at once vivid aud lovable, The failure of the book is its too leisurely beginning, its discursiveness, and the rather loose construction which destroys half the significance of the final discovery that Oliver, too, has his secret. If you can forgive the faults-not uncommon among psychological novels -you will probably enjoy "‘Weave a Circle,’ for its shrewd observation of character, its gentleness and its unpretentious honesty. "Weave a Circle," by Diana Patrick. (Hutchinson and Co., Lad., London). Our eony from the publishers,