I1
0
SUNDAY, JAN. 31, 1937
THRM-ICRIGAN. DAILY
PAGE NF
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAGE NINE
Straw
In
The
Wind,' Third Hopwood Novel, Is
Reviewed
n
w
AmiSh Sect
Is Dobson' s
Background
Good Local Color Lends
Authority To Story Of
Indiana FamilyI
STRAW IN THE WIND, a new Hop-
wood prize novel, by Ruth Lininger
Dobson. Dodd, Mead and Co.,
1937. $2.00.
By PROF. KARL LITZENBERG
(Of the English Department)
Bound in nauseous green which be-
lies its sombre contents, and accom-
panied by a publisher's blurb, which,
with calculated subtlety, tells us how
we are to interpret the major chart
acter, Ruth Lininger Dobson's Straw
ha the Wind appears this week as the
latest addition to the ever-growing
collection of published Hopwood
mAnuscripts. It is gratifying to know
that the story renders the cover
meaningless; and that Moses Bon-
trager (the major character) sur-
vives the blurb.
Mrs. Dobson's novel deals with a
particular family (the Bontrager)
who belong to a particular sect (the
Amish) which flourishes in a par-
ticular locality (northern Indiana.)
The author pretends to do little more
than tell a colloquial story. But she
tells this story with power and in-
terest - and what is more to the
point in local-color fiction, she tells
it with authority. If her history of
the Bontrager family is not con-
structed from the truth of life, she
has completely taken in this reviewer.
The Amish-Bontragers, under the
effective whip of old 1Mfoses, and in
accordance with the strict views of
their sect, live an old-world, horse-
and-buggy life in the gasoline age of
the new world. Their clothes are
made by their own women; their
hats are flat and broad-brimmed;.
their farm tools are primitive;
schism rears up in the sect when onet
group wishes to use trucks and
tractors for hauling water to aj
drought-devastated farm. The Am-
ishes spend thefr dreary days in work,
in prayer, and in eating: and father
Bontragercan work as unremittingly
as he can pray; can eat as energeti-
cally as he car work. It is around
hirm, his strength, his prayers, and
his appetite, that Mrs. Dobson builds
her story. Old Moses is a zealous
Puritan; a strong, hard-bitten, dom-
ineering, avaricious parent and patri-
arch who fears only his God. The
conflict in the story results from the
individual and collective attempts of
his brood to escape the awful juris-
diction of his sanctified tyranny. His
daughter Polly is driven out of his
house into sinful happiness by Moses
himself; his favorite son Neri steals
the old man's life's savings and runs
away to avoid being a "dutchie;" his
wife Sarah escapes mercifully into
the fields beyond. But the other
Bontragers are not so fortunate:
and it is only after Moses dies -of
apoplexy brought on by anger and
work - that Rebecca can marry the1
non - Amish Eli Hostettler; that
Christian can take up his painting;
that Jacob can read his long hidden'
Forthcoming Books
SCOTTISH POETRY, edited by
M. M. Gray. $2.00.
DEBUSSY, by Edward Lockspeiser
edited by Eric Blom. $2.00.
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. by
Sir Charles Oman. $3.00.
STORM IN A TEACUP, by G.
March-Phillips. $2.00.
THE STORY OF THE BIBLE, by
Sir Frederick Kenyon. $1.50.
A WOMAN SURGEON, by Dr.
Rosalie Slaughter Morton. $3.00.
HER NAME WAS WALLIS WAR-
FIELD, by Edwina H. Wilson.
$1.50.
ROMANTIC ADVENTURE, auto-
biography of Elinor Glyn. $3.50.
SHOWMAN, autobiography of
William A. Brady. $3.00.
AARON BURR, by Nathan Scha-
chner. $3.50.
FORTY CENTURIES LOOK
DOWN, by F. Britten Austin.
$2.50.
MASKS, by Queen Marie of Rou-
mania. $2.50.
A WOMAN OF WASHINGTON,
by Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr.
confess). This reviewer submits that
there is nothing either irrestistible or
compelling about Moses Bontrager:
he is a fiend from start to finish;
and the smouldering ugliness of his
character is shownin everydeed that
Mrs. Dobson makes him do, in every
word she makes him utter. This re-
viewer submits further that Mrs.
Dobson knew what she was doing
when she conceived in her mind his-
abusivehand pitiable nature. Moses
Bontrager is a villain upon compul-
sion; his environment, his heritage,
histraining, and especially his Amish
sectarianism, have piled upon him a
mass of inhibitions for which he can
only compensate with violence. This
violence, to be sure, takes a physical
form only once - and that "once"
causes Moses' death. But his moral,
mental, and spiritual violence consti-
tutes the fabric of the story.
John Kieran 's History Records
Perversion" Of Olympic Ideal
THE STORY OF THE OLYMPIC places each in the 1920 Games and
GAMES, 776 B.C. to 1930 A.D., by in another of those countries tying
John Kieran. Frederick A. Stokes with nine firsts, it is indicative not
Co., New York. 310 Pages. only of haphazard proof reading but
also of careless composition.
By WILLIAM R. REED And this same hasty composition
In that field of journalism which must have resulted in Mr. Kieran's
Stanley Walker has so uncharitably failure to attain the same casual style
called "Valhalla's Bullpen," few men which makes his daily column the
have stood out with the distinction most readable in America.
and dignity possessed by John Kier- But those shortcomings are far
an. His v'ersatility has not been con- from destroying the real value of the
fined to the droll reporting in his book which is the first attempt to
"Sports of the (New York) Times" chronicle the story of the games,
either for he is an able commentator the peryersion of whose ideal of in-
on political and social trends of the ternational brotherhood is well shown
day as well. by Mr. Kieran.
With full appreciation of Mr. Kier- From 776 B. C. to 1936 A.D. Mr.
an's many abilities and distinctions, Kieran gives an account of each of
it is well to consider first the short- the spectacles, revived in their mod-
comings of his most recently pubs ern quadrennial form at Athens in
lished work in the field of sports, 1896. The story of the early games
The Story of the Olympic Games. is necessarily sketchy, but none the
These shortcomings are contained less interesting. The story of the
in the recognition that the book's modern games is for the most part
principal design is to capitalize on the a factual recording in approved jour-
popularity of its subject in this post- nalistic fashion, with brief exceptions
Olympic year. As such it is hastily when the author resorts to his indi-
done, and it must be said, scarcely vidual style in relating an anecdote
worthy of this writer, such as the story of Lieutenant
That is demonstrated in the no- Wyndham Halswelle winning the 400
ticeable inaccuracies which result. meter run in the 1908 games, run-
When, for instance, Mr. Kieran ning by himself in a "walkover" after
speaks in one place of the United the three American finalists had
States and Finland taking eight first withdrawn after having been accused
of fouling in the scheduled finals.
Valuable, although hardly essen-
tial, to one who follows the records
closely, is the complete list of Olym-
pic champions with their records
which is included.
To the reader who will select this
book less ,for its value as a source
of records and material than as a re-
cording of the major spectacle in
sport, most valuable will be Mr. Kier-
an's reporting of the controversies
which have marred Baron Pierre de
Courbetin's ideal, from the difficulty
over the Sunday opening for the 1900
Games at Paris to the stormy 1936
Games, whose numerous "incidents"
included the failure of the American
team officials to run Michigan's Sam
Stoller and which set a precedent for
the use of the Games as nationalistic
propaganda which may eventually
lead to their dissolution.
The book is of real value, as a
source of reference, as an objective
view of this quadrennial effort to
establish the brotherhood of man
through competition in athletics, and
it is only slightly lessened in value
by a too apparent attempt to cap-
italize on its timeliness.
Bonaparte In Egypt
On February 18 will appear F. Brit-
ten Austin's second dramatic novel of
Napoleon, Forty Centuries Look
Down, the story of the campaign
of 1798-99 in Egypt.
Austin is a military authority as
well as a novelist, and his book deals
with both the historical and the pri-
vate sides of Napoleon's life in Egypt.
books; that Ezra can be in name what
he has always been in fact: the Bon-
trager paterfamilias.
There are some splendidly drawn
characters in the book: Rebecca, the
submissive daughter; Ezra, the sen-
timental brother of Moses; and Sar-
ah, the long-suffering wife. But the
real art of Mrs. Dobson's character-
portrayal lies in the surpassingly
ugly soul of Moses himself. "There is
something irresistible and compel-
ling" about him, the publishers tell
us (and "something cruel" also, they
To say that he is a psychopathic
case would serve no critical purpose;
to say that he is a man obsessed
with straitness would not completely
describe the workings of his mind.
He is, at his worst, a sadist. His
feelings and behavior, however, vary
with the relative power of given cir-
cumstances to force him into such
violent opinion and action as will
compensate for the more normal
expression of the self which the Am-
ish morality proscribes. It is the life
of Moses Bontrager which makes the
story of Straw in the Wind; it is his
death which provides the moral. It
is with him that the story begins
and ends; and it is in him that Mrs.
Dobson demonstrates her skill as a
psychological novelist.
I
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__GOODHEW
pop Week-Ene
TOWERS____
P
Md'+D'I
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p r n's q
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You Can't Afford To Miss
MONDAY
BARGA-IN
SECTION
fit
P
* House Parties
* Teas
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* Valentine's Day
MAIN STORE
36 FORMAL and DINNER
DR ESSES-
ALL WANTED SHADES - Sizes 14 to 40.
$7,000 rid $1 1.00
JACOBSON'S
YOUR DR ESSES
for every occasion from
Classroom to Dates - - -
FEBRUARY SALE'
$6.95and $1.00
Values $12.95 to $29.75
Perhaps a strictly tailored dress for school or a dress
fussy and 'frilly or one you can wear any place and
anywhere. Here you are- any kind you want.
These!
SMARTEST
HOSIERY SHOPPE
Michigan Theatre Bldg.
Monday Only
FORMAL SLIPS
White, Tea Rose and Black
$1.74
ALL-KNIT PAJAMAS
i/ Price
SPECIALS
FOR A LIMITED' TIME
Very Special !
All-wool flannel and jersey;
Shirt and novelty style blouses
Regularly $2.95
Now $1.98
LAURA BELLE
SHOP
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3 for $5.95
Were $2.50 and $3.50
NECKWEAR
3 for $2.95
Our Complete Stock
A GLANCE at the list of occasions for flowers will
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is no better place to get them than at GOODHEW'S.
WOOL HOSE
20% Discount
O'COATS
20% Discount
Includes Barberry's
PAJAMAS
3 for $4.95
Were $2.50 and $5.00
1,
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$4.25
Were $8.50
"I
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Two Stores
the
Elizabeth Pillon
SPORT COATS
$12.95
Were $19.50
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cAn cAnnouncement for the Disillusioned! !
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