Judge — March 29, 1930 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

JUDGE JUDGING BOOKS T an old weakness of this bookie, continues to pile up critical b: a straightfor- ward, spellbinding, quict story-teller in the genre manner, with his “Back- water,” a tale of Ol’ Man Suthin Miss'ippi, him of the collapsible lev- We use the ter advis- edly , for Massa Stribling is anything but a self-conscious genre writer. He writes yarns — all-wool-and-a-yard- wide ones —about moderns in back- wood spots, but he doesn’t write with the consummate pity of the highbrow novelists with a mission. He has no mission, but gets there just the same. “Backwater” is built on the Romeo- and-Juliet plan, outlining the bumpy course of love of the “sophisticated” “collegiate” son of the le bootleg- ger for the do'tah of the most respec table Methodist aris it in the county. The love runs through the intricacies of a well-rounded _ plot which brings in a complete cross- Striping leaves as section of your modern suthin: man- ners, modes and differences, and winds Mr. Shubert would call a stnash finish, during which the levee bursts and All Ends Happily. But so casily, truly, kindly is the whole thing done no one can ery “Potboiler” to Mr. Stribling and be jet live by us. up in wh The week's literature still holding a southerly course, your young boy Brandeis will now put on his cap and x Elizabeth Madox Great epic of the settling of Ke discuss and erts’ Meadow,” tucky around 1774 after Dan'l Boone 1 opened it. “The Great Meadow by a young lady highbrow with whom our leading critics have endowed our literary future. It represents a defi- nite point in the chart of her upward swing towards Literary Valhalla. It has been reviewed in cestatic terms on the front ss of the conservative 5 erts is, the buglers toot, the girl with the goods. Well, she is the girl with the goods. We've never read her before, but this book is fine. It is wholesome reading, replete with an idealistic attitude to- ward life as expressed in a heroine endowed with a “passionate belief in the potential nobility of human char- acter.” It is beautifully written in the kind of stylized, clean-cut poeti prose which comes to so many young women who fill the college literary magazines with poctry of the earth and the heart of the idealisti It is whole-cloth epic, the of our country, about a state it is true, but still cy it falls somewhere between Homer and the better Jesse Lasky. Its emo- tion, story, history and characters are perfect in every detail. It is any num- of things: all high-sounding. And ¢ not joshing. Somehow, however, “The Great Meadow,” be it the heart story of the fine pioncer woman, didn't move us. It was just a bit too finely drawn, too finicky and neat about what it had to We missed the blur, homeliness, roughness of Rolvaag and the gusto of Homer. Stribling and probably Evelyn Scott would have done it we like it. Maybe we're just a big bear of a man, but that’s how it is. But by all means read it. You may see differently virgin. pic story small-time As such Probably the most fascinating read- ing we know is autobiography. There is something about the first person, if applied to the honest telling of an honest life, that gets to you and holds you, Naturally, this encomium is not meant for the ghosted lives of cor- poration heads and Bernarr Maefad- den, Joan Lowell just misses being blacklisted. Even if she was a liar, she was no bore, Any it is with heart we can recommend “Pearl Diver,” the story of Victor Berge, famous undersea dipper, as set down by H.W. Lanier. You will find it not only a human document but also the last word on that romantic job of getting oyster-diseases to hang round your girl's white throat. periences in his diver's outfit are more dramatic than anything you've seen on Broadway this His en counters with sharks and octopi, both undersea and on land, are full of thrills for us city fellers. His de scription of the little argument. be- tween the shark and the octopus is every bit as exciting as the famous movie of the encounter of the mon- and the cobra, We'd like to see npionship battle between the The book falls off a bit the end, the author leaves off reminiscing for compili cold statistics about pearls. His fig ures obscure the living quality in the story. But why not read up to that point? It'll be a satisfying experi- ence. —Trp Suane a whole Berge’s ex season, goose since 23 “Now, how would Bobby play this shot, caddie?" “Well, why don't you sir?” “Don’t want a drink what time it is.” “Excuse me, Mrs. Smith, thought this was your daughter's room. All out! want to Jones drink, but T comicbooks.com