A WOMAN ON HER WAY. By John Van Druten. (Putnam.
7s. 6d.)—It is meant as a compliment when we say that Mr. Van Druten's book reminds us of an amateur photo- grapher's album of snapshots. He has a genius for capturing the moods and the poses of a certain group of people. His camera is as merciless as that of an enfant terrible at a picnic, so merciless that, as we are faced with the results of it, we feel a little uncomfortable at being forced to recognize the age we live in. Mr. Van Druten is not so successful with his heroine as with the circle in which she moves. He knows and, perhaps, likes her too much to be able to show her off to others. She, Elinor, has a very rigid code but no orthodox morality. She is a novelist who has been unhappily married, and who after- wards makes a good many attempts to find some stability in a life that is crowded with friends, lovers and acquaintances. There is not' one dull paragraph in this book full of meetings and partings, but the author's excellent gifts of characterization and narrative, as well as his really beautiful prose, are a little wasted in a book that is so of the moment that it might be labelled, " the very latest."
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