PNge SIx

'PERSPECTI VES


ON THE BOOK SHELF

The Keys of the Kingdom
By A. J. Cronin, 344 pp.
Little, Brown and Co. $2.50
This is the first novel by A. J. Cron-
in since The Citadel. It is his sixth
novel. And his best.
Now personally I think that's enough
of a review for any book: they're either
good or bad, and the Latins had a
phrase about tastes . . .
But to go into the matter a little
deeper; I picked up the book rather
cynically: stories of priests had never
appealed to me. I feared that this man
who is singular among modern novelists
as one who does not believe in the Novel
with a Purpose had deserted me. If
you'll pick up his other books you'll
find that none of them preach, nor
champion'the cause of the underdog nor
seek social redress. Just good, straight-
forward entertainment, not the kind
that makes you think about the char-
acters, the plot of the story and maybe
the author. And after all isn't that
what a novel should be? Sociological
treatises should be confined to sociology
classes and library shelves of stodgy
sociologists.
Well, anyway, I feared Dr. Cronin
had turned the tables here. A priest
for a hero: he must be going to preach
the message of religion, and you can get
plenty of that from the Bible, which is
a pretty good piece of writing in itself.
But somehow things didn't turn out like
I had feared. Instead of a staid, stilted
man with his collar on backwards I
found a Catholic priest who was a swell
guy, a good Scotsman (maybe that's
why he appealed to me-I'm Scotch),
a man with a character you could only
describe as magnificent.
Francis Chisholm was a modern saint,
and yet it is essential that the main
trait of his character was that he never
could havethought of the word "magni-
ficent" applied to his own achievements,
that to him, his life could never be called
"great." He looked upon himself as a
man of puny strivings, and humility was
the very essence ofhis saintliness, along
with truth and courage and frankness.
Francis Chisholm was a man of great
adventure along with this saintliness
. . a man whose life makes one of
the most interestfng novels of the dec-
ade.
This second Mr. Chips was born a
fisherman's son in the small Scottish
border town of Tweedside. As a lad
there was no thought of the priesthood-
a good Scottish childhood in his father's
church, with a mother the daughter of
S non-conformist. Tolerance was the
very foundation of that home, and that
tolerance became the very foundation
of Francis Chisholm's life. At 12 catas-
trophe to his parents had made him
despise the word "religion," and yet his
deeper need for God, his honest sim-
plicity in contrast to his playmate Ans-
elm Mealy who was destined from child-
hood to be a career man in the priest-
hood: indeed, he was born to it-these
and the loveable old Scottish priest,
Monsignor MacNabb, set Francis on the
road to the priesthood.
Yet Father Chisholm lacked the thing
necessary to make him a success as a
priest in the worldly sense. There was
just a little of the rebellious, a little of
the individualistic, a wonderful sense of
humor, and a little too much tolerance
to be mundanely successful as a man
of God in any church. Father Chisholm
was a little above his contemporaries;
like Chips he was beloved and yet never
worldly famous.
But enough of the story. If I tell it
to you you won't read it, and that isn't
why I'm writing this. Suffice to say
here that this is no ordinary story of
an ordinary priest. It is rather the
story of a man who would not have
been one mite different had he been

doctor or lawyer or politician. It preach-
es no lesson, except that of a man whose

truthfulness and frankness stood above
all other things.
Perhaps the book is best described by
one little incident.. On his deathbed an
atheist confides to Father Chisholm: "I
still can't believe in God." And the
priest answers: "Does that matter? He
believes in you." What is religion but
your struggle for goodness? It's not
in formal creed or confession or de-
nial. An all-knowing Divinity must
care little for the hollow formalities of
religion itself: =real holiness is in deed
and kindness and charity, in making
other people happy. This is no attack
on religion or the church( any church),
but the most religious people in the
world have never set foot inside a
church; and some of the worst stinkers
and hypocrites there are attend church
every Sunday. If only your life is
worthy of it. God will believe in you:
and it is there that the very sinew of
religion lies,
The Keys of the Kingdom is the best
of A. J. Cronin's novels. It far sur-
passes The Citadel. Here is greater
human warmth and vitality, a better
understanding of character, a more hon-
est discussion of life. It-lacks the con-
fusion of characters found in The Cita-

to support English traditions. Some-
thing intangible and unexplainable even
to the authoress, caused her to remain
in England, raising her son to live up to
the age old qualifications of an English-
man. Hence, on the break of this second
World War, she has said,
"I am American bred,
I have seen much to hate here-much
to forgive,
Butina world where England is fin-
ished and dead.
I do not wish to live."
White Cliffs is a touching and beauti-
ful story unfolded in the musical
rhythms of poetry. It somehow gives
one a saner outlook and a deeper ap-
preciation of all peoples victimized in
a world gone mad.
- Joan Clement
Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign
Correspondent, 1934-1941. 605 pp.
By William L. Shirer, New York: Al-
fred A. Knopf, $3.
It is not often that one comes upon
a foreign correspondent with the calm
insight and clear cut style of William
L. Shirer. In Berlin Diary the Colum-

CONTRASTS
Sounds and smells of trucks
And men
And stockings ten on a line,
Cows and horses graze in fields
And the stuff that quilts are copied from
Are born here,
And all these feed on the clean-blue air.
And all this is country.
And all the sounds and smells and colors
That are trucks and boats and men
Are speeding through patterns to cities
Drugged-with night
And the lights that give them light.
-oan Clement

iasm at the announcement of the in-
vasion of Poland is contrasted to their
cheering reception of the Munich Agree-
ment which postponed the outbreak of
conflict in September of 1938.
However, the complete acceptance by
the people of propaganda lies until re-
cently is also noted. Their faith in
official communiques and press reports
has been diminished by the denial of
successful British air raids over Berlin
when the raid and even some damage
were apparent to Berliners.
It is these raids that have shaken
morale. The people had been led to
believe that Berlin was invulnerable by
their leaders and air raids were a shock
to them. The loss of sleep proved par-
ticularly damaging to the morale. It
is for this reason that Shirer pleads for
continuous British, attacks on Berlin
even though small.
The food situation in the Reich is not
as serious as one is led to believe. Al-
though there are shortages, especially of
fats and fruits, the basic German foods
of potatoes, cabbage and bread are still
plentiful. Even considering the fact
that many Germans dislike the present
Nazi regime, the people will follow Hit-
ler, who is complete boss of wartime
Germany, because they fear the conse-
quences of defeat.
-George W. Sallade
Restless Are The Sails,
by Evelyn Eaton, 348p. $2.50
Harper and Brothers.
Evelyn Eaton will be better remem-
bered as the author of the best-seller
on early Canadian life Quietly My Cap-
tain Awaits.
With Restless Are The Sails, she
brings us the same fast-moving type of
novel built around authentic historical
happenings. But she sacrifices-the au-
thenticity of her main character to do
so.
This book covers only a short period
of time around 1745, but every moment
is packed with the action and suspense
of Paul de Mourpain's thrilling if im-
possible heroics. The siege of the Fort
Louisburg furnishes the central back-
ground upon which intrigue, heart-
break, death and destruction are built
towards the inevitable happy and tri-
umphant ending.
Paul de Mourpain. "not a gentleman,
a prisoner of war, a Frenchie, a Catho-
lie, and a fish out of sea," leaves nothing
to be wished for as a romantic adven-
turer. Breaking away from his servi-
tude as a prisoner of war in New Eng-
land, he begins a dangerous 500-mile
journey to Louisburg to advise the fort
of an expedition against it headed by
Sir William Pepperell.
In the course of this journey by sea
and forest trail, the determined young
man meets the "fifth columnist" Abb
le Loutre, and is forced by a strange set
of circumstances to marry an Indian
girl. This marriage due to lack of proper
ceremonial procedure, does not seem
binding enough to Paul to prevent his
love for and marriage plans with the
governor's daughter, Anne de Cham-
bron. But the appearance of San at the
very moment of the wedding discour-
ages the immediate culmination of the
plans.
Paul is thus set free to enter into the
action of the siege which affords the
climax of the story. How it affects
Paul, first fugitive and then pirate,
what befalls his Indian wife and child,
how he at last fulfills his destiny, all
weave into and create a story of in-
tense interest.
- Jeanne Dodge
The Captain From Connecticut
By C. S. Forrester. 344 pages
Little, Brown and Company. $2.50
Captain Josiah Peabody ordered the

anchor raised and sails set, and sailed
out from Long Island Sound into the

del, and seems easier and smoother to
read as a whole.
Here is a second Mr. Chips. Maybe
not as loveable or as eternal, but then
Mr. Chips was a rare one. But they'll
go down in literary history pretty much
as a pair: two of the most beloved char-
acters of modern times.
All of which is just what I said in
the first paragraph. It's A. J. Cronin's
best novel. And that's saying enough.
-Bill Baker
White Cliffs'of Dover
by Alice Duer Miller, 70 p.
Coward-McCann, Inc., $1
In The White Cliffs," Alice Dues' Mil-
ler has molded an impressive picture of
world problems from her long narrative
poem. Mrs. Miller presents an unpreju-
-diced outlook although, as the poem
reveals, it should rightfully be tinted.
She is a native of Rhode Island who,
traveling in Europe, met, fell in love
with, and married a young English
aristocrat just before the break of the
first World War. Mrs. Miller loved
though little understood her husband.
They were together for only a short
time when he died for the principles of
the nation of which he was a part.
It seemed to his helpless wife that
there was little reason for his sacrifice
and hers. She asked for none. She
didn't understand the coolness inherent
in the English. And when her son was
born, he, like his father, was brought up

bia Broadcasting System's continental
ace gives a vivid picture of the years
during Hitler's rise to power and an
uncensored report of Germany at war.
Shirer managed to be where most of
the important events took place during
the terrible years from 1934-1941. He
saw the Fascist riots in Paris in 1934.
He watched the rearming of Germany
through conscription and the re-occu-
pation of the Rhineland.
The diary account of Hitler's march
of conquest clearly illustrates the great
fallacy that was appeasement. Shirer
relates the tragedy of brave, little Aus-
tria. He recalls the failure of a plebis-
cite to materialize before the German
conquest. Although Shirer was the only
radio broadcaster in Vienna when the
occupation began, the Nazis prevented
him from revealing his scoop over the
air.
An interesting trend in Berlin Diary
is the prophetic tone. The moves against
Czechoslovakia, the invasion of Scandi-
navia and the spreading of the war in
the western theatre of action are all pre-
dicted. Hitler, according to Shirer, had
three choices: to wait and fight the war
on the economic front, as had been
done during the winter, 1939-1940; to
meet the Allies in s'ome easy spot like the
Balkans; or to seek a decision in the
west by striking through Holland and
Belgium.
The complete apathy of the German
people towards the war is strikingly re-
vealed by Shirer. Their lack of enthus-