THE KERRELS OF HILL END. By Charles Landstone. (Murray. 75.
6d.)—Here we have a novel which is important not for the sake of its plot but because of• the numerous clear character studies contained in it. The Kerrels are a Jewish family who leave Highbury for Hill End, where they are at first surrounded by Gentiles and later become members of a Jewish colony, which gradually springs up in the district. Reenie, the daughter, who decides at the age of seven that she doesn't want a husband as she is going to write poetry and become " ever so rich and famous and who, at the age of thirteen, quotes Ibsen, is the central figure and a most interesting character. The author does not insist upon any difference between Reenie and her English neighbour: he only presents her to us as a creature who is much more alert, passionate, proud, and intellectual. The book is occasionally spoilt by pieces of slipshod writing, as when we are told that Reenie " aimed a blow at his ears with the flat of her hand," but the characterization is excellent, and the subtle distinctions between two races are so delicately drawn that interest is sustained in spite of these lapses, and in spite, too, of a very ordinary plot.
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