Life — October 18, 1923 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

LIFE _Lite and. Letters HETHER or not reviewers read the books about which they write notices has frequently been questioned, but no gory locks can be shaken at me in this connection. Several years ago I had an Awful Lesson. Skim- ming the first page or villain, too, with seductive savoir faire and captivating conversation, but he loves cruelty for its own sake, step- ping on cats’ tails and threatening his enemies with poisoned darts from the Guineas. He moves like a wicked giving them time to adjust themselves to its responsibilities, and the result is pretty terrible. Here are the prom girls of yesteryear, running around with men to whom they aren’t mar- ried, ordering raiment which their husbands can’t afford, talking two of “The Cruise of the Kawa,” I was about to dis- miss it in print as “another contribution to the South Seas literature with which the market is now flooded,” I fell upon this sen- tence: “He had lost one of his eyes in the Australian bush, where naturally it was impossible to find it.” If I had closed the book a second In gratitude for my salvation, I made a solemn the nature of which I leave to your imagination. when sooner ! vow, ILLIAM J. LOCKE'S new novel, “The Length- ened Shadow” (Dodd, Mead), was a_ great Mr. Locke's easy style has not the ages, nor has his formula for a hero, the latter physiological and psychologi- cal composite of something temptation. altered with being a dragged in respectively by the cat and Dr. Brill. His pen- for ma beautiful young women fall for gentle- chant ing men several years their senior amounts almost to mania. So inasmuch as one of his novels is very like another, it’s a simple matter to flutter through the pages and then say so. It's lucky, however, that I had my lesson. For lo and To Lloyd George V ELCOME, O canny Cambrian! We like your peppy style; We like the clever way you ran Your tight and tidy isle. We like your witty words which strike The bone that makes us laugh, And, now your job is done, we like The way you stand the gaff. For years we watched you scale the heights, Or bridge the yawning voids, While Britons calmly slept o’ nights, Insured in full by Lloyd's, And now once more our favorite name The urns of fate disgorge, And link two countries in the claim Of an immortal George. George S. Chappell. “| _ ineffectively to dice, and dropping silver flasks out of their bags as they stumble over the threshold en route to their ailing offspring. And the daredevil dialogue in which they indulge! You must read it to believe it. Miss Speare aims at smart suburban sophistication, but misses her mark sadly. There is an installment-plan touch to her setting. “The Gay Year” sounds as if it were written from hearsay by a re- spectable spinster. The bridge scene alone is enough to make devotees of the game burst out crying. One redeeming feature is the heroine, Jerry, carried over from “Dancers in the Dark.” The same Jerry whose advice on make-up ought to be printed on hand- bills and circulated by boy scouts: “Always stop when you think it’s a little under- done. It never will be.” Lit- tle Eva from Boston is also a good characterization, her “You spit a bibful” and “Give me time to get my teeth in” going far to correct our out- standing impression of the vernacular in our modern Athens. HE SACRIFICIAL GOAT,” by Ernita Las- celles (Boni & Liveright), has been widely heralded for having a character drawn from the life along the lines behold, in “The Lengthened Shadow” he has dipped his pen into deviltry, if not downright melodrama. The pretty young ward is present, but this time there is added to the mangy but lovable hero who desires her a villain who desires her in- heritance as well. He is an arch- Robot through the story, which is readable, but just as shallow as it can be. IX “The Gay Year” (Doran), Doro- thy Speare has thrust the younger generation into matrimony without of Bernard Shaw. Edward Moreby is the character’s name, and I rather enjoyed the story until he stepped into it. It is all about the struggles of a young woman with a boarding-house background to succeed as an actress, and it will make you (Continued on page 29) comicbooks.com