Decade

$2.50

THIS is a first novel ‘of promise.’ Unlike so many first novelists, the author presents a dramatis personœ only as long as the wing-spread of an eagle, and a narrative covering only a decade instead of three generations. Still and all, it is a hearty dish. ‘Lusty’ is the word for the writing and most of the leading characters. The theme is the action on the lives and fortunes of the Rowlandson family of the disintegrating 1930’s. On the portrait of the patriarch and founder of the family, John Christian, known as ‘The Old One,’ the author has done his best work. This portentous, picturesque, and rather incredible figure dominates the book. One doesn’t care very much what happens — though plenty happens — to the rest of the outfit. It is a readable book, and ‘ promising.’