The Vermilion Gate
by . John Day, $4.50.
A novel set in western China during the Moslem rebellion of the early thirties ought to be a fairly exciting affair, whethor it is intended as a serious study of Chinese life or not, but The Vermilion Gate, which is no serious study, is not exciting either. It has too many ingredients, from the bright newspaperman hero to the heroine and her soap-opera troubles, which are standard stuff in home-based U.S. fiction; and such specifically Chinese items as the clever concubine and the café singer kidnaped to amuse a visiting general are equally standard in the Oriental field. Coincidence runs amok too, with the right people always turning up in a crisis or dying off just when the plot needs a bit of stimulation. A great deal happens with no particular conviction, and virtue ultimately triumphs, a denouement clearly visible from page fifty.