'PAGE SIX'
THE "MICHIGAN DAILY
SUND.AY, S.MPTEMBER 30, 1923
Books and
Wrters
±iH 1 I
a"......s.N.Y.""...AS.sia.s"s.a..n.s.....""".N"s.""".".f"ist....a"..................... ."...."............. "s.." .. I'',.
SHOUTED it very mildly. The trul
FROM GREY TOWERS age is free from gr
errors." Consider, for
GREY TOWERS, A Campus Novel expression, "their-
Aonymous. Coviel.eGee Co. faces" When to break
19211. $2.00 added a spineless. story
This is a book which should not phisticated dialogue, an
have been written, yet which once tendency to call names
written cannotbe ignored. Most lit- save Grey Towers. T
'erary works for whose production obituary i written the
there is no adequate and legitimate Reviewed by Lis
excuse, meet with the indifference they
deserve; but Grey -Towers is destined
for a time to survive its faults and A PICTURE GAL
even to command attention. OF THE JUDGE
The reason for the book's present THE JUDG
popularity is plain. Muckraking, for By Rebecca Wevi Dora
the past twenty years America's favor- Miss West first appea
ite indoor sporthas been raised even izow ithahe
to an art by the anonymous author erary horion with her
of Grey Towers. We knowwlhat to thes,'ncrity ofs a you
expect the minute we read in the luridobe sincerit ].ayd
blars, Ost~tliig xposf' Shnoble first attempt, anc
blurbs, "A startling expos4e' "e p-a developing skill in st:
tears the mask from the rotten fe-jlacks insight, but show
tures of our university life," and the and almost adoration
like. We areiot disappointed. With authord
a bitterness and spleen which (what "Every mother is a it
ever-brave ethical catch-words the tences the children fo
publishers may vent) are entirely per--
sonal,. she ptces mud at all. the w 11a
known.professors of theUniversity of
Chicago, and. then, to-give us our
money's worth, daubs a few of the
struggling young instructors-and
their wives. All the characters in
Grey Towers, it seems,-except the
sainted heroine, Joan Burroughs,-
daily fracture the ten commandments
andd Mrs. Post's Laws of Behavior.
The author appears In doubt which.
trans ession is he more serious. At
any rate, she is resolved to let no
fault, however small, escape portrayal
and censure. She 'has analyzed the
academic mindat Grey Towers and
found it full of conceit, jealousy,
meanness. She would convince us W e
that zeal in research is discouraged;
that students are regarded only as
machines; that all the men on thej be CCofl
faculty are at heart the .blackestof
rakes, restrained only by base fear;
in short, that the institution is rotten
mentally and morally, We behold stu- i
dents avid for knowledge groping
helplessly while their professors bick-
er with each other and make after
each others' wives. Woeful scene of-
gloom and: desolation, relieved only
by the idealistic Joan, who at the last
is herself. forced to succumb. to the MOST
powers of evil. An impressive-pic-
ture, certainly, if we can forget one BENE
important fact: that the world per-
versely: refuses to divide 4nto two re- LIKE
gions, blackest black and whitest I
white. The indictment sfar too gen-THE
era: some of the professors must es-
cape the Stygian fumes.
And then, there is Joan. I own to
an ineradicable suspicion that she is
what used to be quaintly called a per-
fectibilist; the modern term for which
isprig. She is a combination of Cora
Harris, who proudly avers in the
satevepost that she read Horace for
self-improvement at the age of thir-
teen, and of Dr. Stuart Sherman, with
his rant about the glorious destiny
of the Mid-Western University. Ob-
viously any modern Joan of Arc who
prances forth on a milk-white steed to
lead the forces of Idealism, is riding
for a fall. Joan, in whom it requires
no great astuteness to perceive the
intrepid author, gets just what is con-
ing to her.
The other characters are "created."
Try to malfe any of them walk the
streets of a real city and he would
collapse. The author's co-eds are even J
more sleazy. Her society lads are at-
tenuated Fitzgerald and diluted Doro-
thy Speare. Than which there is no
niore damning indictment.
Undoubtedly there is need for a ai
novel of this kind, a novel whic shall
satirize the numerous faults of our
educational system's; but it should not
be as childishly personal, as shoddilyI
written, as Grey Towers Not the
most favorable critic can discirn In -
all the two hundred fifty pages one
just description, one happy image, one
Bitty phrase That is: ineed, pitipg .
WHEN YOU THINK
OF A
GOOD STEAK DINNER
THINK OF
Besimer'a s.
WEST HURON STREET
ACROSS FROM D. U. R. STATION
WE'VE BEEN SERVING THE BEST
FOR YEARS
r the sinsof
op in -
like to
ae acquainteid
now you better,
'I N IIVE,1S1 TY*
OF THE OLD STUDENTS KNOW US, SO FOR THE.
FIT OF THE NEW STUDENTS AT MICIGAN, WE'D
TO SAY THAT YOU'LL FIND OUR "PALACE" ONE OF
EST PLACES IN ANN ARBOR TO GET
azs - Sundaes -1 Drinks-
Candy -Tobacco
Lunches
1 r ALWAYS OPEN.
7 I.USE THE PHONE, LEAVE YOUR BOOKS
HERE, - WE WANT YOU TO ALWAYS
FEEL AT HOME.
f
1 One Block East
- of Engineering Arch