rage Twelve ERSPE CTI V E S BOOKS IN SEASON Whisde Stop, by Maritta Wolff, Random House, 1941 REDUCED to the barest terms, Hamlet becomes a penny-dreadful tale Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause. Similarly, the narrative of Whistle Stop, by Vtaritta Wolff, consists of ,deeds of violence and horror: the somewhat de- mented little girl, Dorothy, strangles the family cat in rage when she discovers that her savings bank has been robbed; the family boarder is brought back un- conscious from an alcoholic spree and later hangs himself, driven on by the diabolical hints of the little girl; the bad boy of the" family (and that is saying quite a lot for this family) is involved In a murder frame-up by the local under- world boss; the same bad boy has a sor- did affair with his ex-sister-in-law and. holds feelings more tender than fratern- al for his own sister; another sister marries the town rake, who has not too long been graduated from the charms of the third sister. Certainly this list of events does not make pretty reading, but Miss Wolff manages -in spite of the melodrama to make Whistle Stop a nov- el of great strength. For one thing, the scenes of violence are here not for them- selves but for the light they throw on the characters. The Veech family is not a nice fam- ily - even the name is nauseous - but no one will deny that it is interesting. The book centers in Mary and Kenny. Mary is a type frequently found in novels and second-rate movies, a scarlet woman with a heart of gold. This color combination is usually effective, if not startling, and it is equally successful here, Mistress of the town's big boss, Mary devotes her hard-earned salary to the family and is the real head of the tribe. She is a strong, silent woman who is usually smoking a cigarette, another standard piece of equipment for the evil-but-essentially-good heroine. But even if Mary is an obvious kind of character we like her. She is "kind to Bill Dodge, a poor worker with a big family; she gives sister Josie an evening dress when it means everything to her; she alone can handle big brother Ernie in one of his roaring drunks. Above all she has profound faith in the family. "Jen's a good kid. She don't use her head, but she's a good kid," she says of her wild young sister. None of the Veetches seems to use his head but Mary stands by faithfully. Kenny, the villain-hero of the novel, is, like Mary, usually smoking a cig- arette; it is almost a symbol of the un- derstanding between them. There aren't many polite words which will describe Kenny. He is so thoroughly objectionable that at no time do we feel sympathy for him, although the women in Whist- el Stop idolize him. He is the hero of the village youths, who admire him for his prowess in love and life. Kenny's cruelty is seen repeatedly; in his break- ing with Rita because he has grown tired of her, in his brutality to Franny as she lies on her deathbed. Kenny is hard, not just morally, but in the sense that life doesn't dent him, for as he tells Carl, "The only way to keep living is to be hard and at the same time to take things easy." Ma Veech, who is apparently un- daunted by bier brood of adders, does not always come off as a character. Some- how one doesn't mind the other Veeches making obscene remarks and doing un- mentionable things, but Ma Veech does- n't ring true on such occasions. She re- proves the children for rattling off a string of oaths which would do credit to the armed forces with, "My, my, what language," and calmly discusses the latest case of village illegitimacy with her other offspring. Not that we fear for the morals of the Veeches, but it makes Ma Veech seem unreal. Ma is strong in trying to protect her family and yet weak in that she turns to Mary At times she is such a motherly soul, for help whenever things really go wrong, wiping moral noses and baking pies, that her other acts seem incongruous. Kenny, Mary, Ma, Ernie, the elder brother, and Jen, one of the twins, are Veeches true to the blood. They make the most of life instead of fighting it. Unruffled they take it in their stride. Feebly, the dissenting side of the family, Pa, Carl, and Josie, try to fight back. Pa is ineffectual and unimportant, al- though at times he weakly takes the side of decency and public opinion. He keeps after Kenny, for instance, for his debaucheries and says in a delicious'bit of unconscious irony, "Why my father would have horsewhipped me for doing that." Carl is a dreamer, soft and eas- ily bruised, the exact opposite of Kenny. He is revolted by his family but is too spineless to do anything about it. In the end he admits that he wishes he could see life as they see it, so that he would be able "to live hard, to drink hard, love hard, and hate hard," but he can't. Josie alone shows strength in her re- bellion against the family. In part her fight is due to pride but often it is simply moral indignation. She looks at Mary through the eyes of conventional decency - Mary is an immoral woman and that's that. She tells Jen, her twin, that she is common, dissolute, and unmoral, which is exactly what she is. She loathes Kenny and refuses to worship at his shrine. Often her moral indignation is shallow. She cries out, for example, when Mary finally marries Lew Lentz, who has kept her for years. But in the end, the Veeches are too much for Josie. We can see it coming when she accepts the evening dress from Mary; her conscience tells her it was bought with stained money but she takes it nevertheless. Jo- sie's end comes when she lets herself be drawn into a runaway marriage with Clim, the town Lothario. Thus ironically enough Josie's desire for escape leads to her complete defeat, for there is no es- cape after this sordid business. With resignation she gives up all dreams of a decent home, nice clothes, respectable people, and a chance to hold her head up in the world. The blood of the Veech- The Time Is Now, by Pierre van Paassen, Dial P ress,1941 - T HIS IS, as its title indicates, another in the "Hitler'll get ya if ya don't watch out" series. In the brief scope of eighty pages Van Paassen presents with great assurance and almost no qualifi- cation an argument for immediate American participation in the war. The analysis is presented with a considerable display of political and historical erudi- tion which at once gives the reader the feeling that Van Paassen reaches con- clusions on the basis of superior know- ledge. This combined with the great cer- es is her blood and she can't get away from it. Jen, hard and common though she is, frequently wins our sympathy by voic- ing the realistic side of the argument in answering Josie. She defends Mary, for Mary is kind and good and everyone likes Mary. For Jen that is the true morality, even though it isn't what convention de- mands. And she sums up the case for the Veech family: "There's lots of places I'd rather be than here, but as long as I am here, I don't see any sense in tearing myself to pieces wanting to be some- where else." Novels like Cardine Slade's The Tri- umph of Willie Pond turns similar ma- terial into a document for social reform, but readers looking for a message in Whistle Stop will be disappointed, unless it is a warning to keep away from the Veeches. In describing the case of Bill Dodge, the abused workman, it looks as if Miss Wolff might be heading in the direction of social refosm, but she quick- ly veers away after using it to throw light on Ernie. These, however, are but a drop in the Veech slop-bucket, for Whistle Stop is simply the story of the Veeches. Therein lies its strength and possibly its weakness. The novel does not deserve unqualifi- ed praise. For one thing, the whole story is highly improbable. But once the read- er gets over the initial jolt and is willing to accept the situation, it is comparative- ly clear sailing. One reviewer has sug- gested that certain characters, Carl, Pa, and Ma, be dropped out. Ma Veech, I believe, should be retained, for. al- though she is not handled too well, she is necessary as a cohesive force helping to give the family unity. I could get along without Jud, the boarder, and Franny is given more prominence than she deserves. Lew Lantz, the rather art- ificial underworld boss, is straight out of a Jimmy Cagney movie, but could hardly be left out since much of the plot revolves around hin. Whistle Stop is also marred by digressive sub-plots, several of which, particularly Kenny's flight, might be separate short stories. Some, perhaps, will be offended by the suggestion of an incestuous relationship between Kenny and Mary, but Miss Wolff handles it so well, that although the idea may be offensive the presenta- tion is not. Furthermore, it is not put in to shock the reader but rather plays an important part in the plot., The virtues of the book far outweigh its flaws. It is strong stuff but beauti- fully done and Miss Wolff deserves all kinds of praise, primarily for the ability she exhibits in scenes and dialogue. You may not find the Veeches as refined as Judge Hardy's family, but I assure you they are much more interesting. If this is the kind of book the Hopwood Prizes produce I say more power to them and to Miss Wolff. -Richard Boys tainty with which many assertions oth- erwise unproved are set forth, makes the argument at first very convincing, Briefly, Van Paassen's thesis is as fol- lows: (1) Hitler and the Nazi are out to conquer the world and will never stop fighting until they hafe succeed- ed or been destroyed. (2) If the United States fails to enter the war at once, Germany in collaboration with Russia and Japan will conquer all of Africa, India and the Far East. (3) In this event the "battle of the Atlantic" will be relatively unimportant. England cut - off from all sources of supply by Amer- ican domination of strategic shore posi- tions on the Atlantic and Mediterranean will be bombed and blockaded into sub- mission. (4) The defense of the United States depends upon the defense of Africa. Our Maginot line is a "Green- land-Dakar-Capetown line." (5) Conse- quently the only way to defend the United States is to defend Africa which means immediate entry into the war. The first steps in the argument have considerable plausibility and are backed by some evidence. The complementary nature of Russian and German interests, however, is merely asserted and seems open to some question, while the picture of Stalin "trembling in the Kremlin" is not very convincing. I doubt if anyone knows as much about Russia as Van Paassen claims to know. The last steps in the argument for American participalion are extremely weak. It is merely asserted, with no sort of proof, whatever, that South Amerea is completely indefensible once Germany has taken Dakar, and that the United States cannot be defended once South America is lost. This may be true, for all I know, but no proof is offered. Finally Van Paassen's argument for intervention is weak because he gives no attention whatever to the costs of war, He predicts that Hitler can be defeated only in a long war but this point is in the midst of an impassioned plea for the defense of Christian Democracy. The ef- fects of a war on this democracy are not even mentioned. Van Paassen simply fails to recognize that a rational de- cision to go to war must depend on a careful weighing of the probable costs of war with the probable costs of a German victory and that there are a great many more uncertainties in the situation than he seems ready to admit. - James Duesenberry SOLD AMERICAN (Continued from Page Nine) and talk, bantering one another. One of them has a wad of long-green leaves in his mouth. They leave behind them a litter of leaves and leaf fragments where they have pulled out the "hands" for inspection. They breeze through the rest of the baskets. The prices are low. Penn usually has to change his tune and go down from the warehouseman's figure instead of rising above it. It does not take much calculation on my part to see that the crop has sold for a good deal less than eighteen cents. The warehousemen weigh up the to- bacco in a little while and give Pete two checks. They are for a hundred and twelve dollars apiece. Pete looks at his check, feels the stamped figures, taps the edge of the check against his fingers. "Well," he says slowly, "I can shut up that bas- tard Fisher's mouth a while anyway." DEEP UNDER THIS SNOW (Continued from Page Three) well as she that it was over and I sobbed out wild things. She looked at me with hurt frowns and once said, "Don't." That was almost the last she said, but the last was, "Why doesn't the snow come?" Snow is falling here now. All the slopes and hilltops are thick with soft white, and the oak outside her room, the wood-house roof where she could see, and the window is brushed with snow down; while it keeps coming softly falling down covering all above slow- ly. But deep under this snow is our autumn summer spring; and though it covers all men's present kingdoms, on those it does not fall.