Judge — January 18, 1930 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SUDGING BOOKS De the huzzas that have greeted it, Valentine Kataev' “The mbezzlers” neither pictures completely the new Russ life nor furnishes unqualified great fiction, It is, however, a lusty and crude story of two sniveling Soviet a f make off with the firm's whoopee it away in Lening then Pay the Price. Their adventures are primarily amusing; and, even though their visitations do include a good cross-section of Russian life, they only touch the dives and low spots. Which, after all, may be Rus- sian life. ne humor is Russ hat is dirty, slapstick and primitive, with a soothing base of satire. It is the sort of humor that never has a nose that isn’t bright red and running, a woman who is not too tidy around the brothel, or a horse that isn’t suffering from windy vapors. It is a kind of Don Quixote done in terms of Mutt and Jeff. They tell us it is comedy Gogol used to make. We wouldn't know. Ignorantly we've read only his “Dead Souls.” it’s unfunny. d, The real importance of the book lies in its being an indication that the Soviet is producing people who can wipe the oil from their hands, look at the machine and question its perfee- tion, As the only crime punishable by death in Russia is graft, it only adds to the novelty of the book and the daring and character of the author that he has chosen two grafting offi- cials for his heroes. In other words, the Soviet is getting a little humor into the works. Maurice Magre’s “Messalina” is another charming little item for the backstairs pornography public. The famous Roman temptress wanders lustfully through this chronicle fes- tooning her boy friends with neat sets of antlers, generally making erine the Great look like a Girl on Palm Sunday. Still you w be shocked, if, like us, you know your tabloids, have gotten around a lot, and read nny Hill before you did Me- s First Reader. Amongst other things, you will learn that Messic’ husband, the Emperor Claudius, was a half-wit and, after all, what was the poor girl to do? To sum it all up, you might say, if you didn’t care much about your friends’ feelings, the book proves “The yen is mightier than the sword,” —Tep Sane JUDGE Visiron—I thought you might teach him to tell folks about your operation! ' 1 1 | BOL Gt AW “Here—what’s this?” “Well, Doc, all the bottles say ‘Shake well before using,’ and taken this way, it tastes just like the stuff my friends serve.” x ee a i comicbooks.com