Fiction
The Question of Interest
His Monkey Wife ; or, Married to a Chimp. By John Collier. (Poter Davies. 7s. 6d.) Several Faces. By Jennifer Courtenay. (Cannes. 7a. 6d.)
THERE is a literary virtue which often gets less than its due—the virtue of being interesting. People ask, about a new book, " Is it good ?" "Is it literature ?" " Is it important ?" but seldom just naturally " is it interesting ? " —and a good many books score a hushed affirmative to the first three questions which would not get one to the last.
These considerations are forced upon us by The Man from Buller's. It is not " good " (in the special sense) : it is not " literature " : it is not " important " : but it is uncom- monly interesting. From the first paragraph one actively wants to go on reading : and, although Mr. Landstone tells some things better than others, the interest does not flag. To begin with, he has an unusually interesting subject. Wilfred Steadmore is a courier—one of " Butler's men." He is qualified to act as guide in almost any capital : and there is a real thrill for English readers in the excellent chapter where he shows a couple of Colonial ladies the sights of London. His pride in this, his sense of possession, are admir- ably conveyed : throughout the book Mr. Landstone earns respect as a man who knows his business. Steadmore was not alwayi a courier. Well born and well educated, he found work on the stage, and was doing well until he met and tempestuously married Violet, whose attractiveness Mr. Landstone most convincingly imparts. Unfortunately she bad other qualities. If he bad not passionately loved her, Steadmore's story would have been happier, but we should never have heard about Butler's. (That is Mr. Landstone's skill ; there is an organic reason for each of his book's ingredi- ents.) Steadmore finds a chance of settled happiness, but Violet's power holds, and brings about the melodramatic but oddly convincing climax. The Man from Butler's gave me more pleasure than either of its companions in this review, and I commend it to all who enjoy a businesslike .story, well managed, and easy to read : i.e., well written.
The theme of His Monkey Wife is also unusual, and an objective method would have made much of it. If I was led irreverently to imagine an after-dinner collaboration between Mr. David Garnett and Mr. Richard Hughes, that is my fault, not Mr. Collier's. His fantastic theme is plausible. The ratio of a chimpanzee's intelligence to that of the Australian bushman is, I am told, about three to seven : and Emily, brought up with the pickaninnies of Boboma by Mr. Fatigay the schoolmaster, might (to oblige a persuasive narrator) have reached an almost human level. If only Mr. Collier had taken for his model Swift or Defoe, there is no saying what n story we might have had. Unfortunately, he prefers to write like this :- " The acetylene moonlight, like a local anaesthetic, freezes pain, and the gorilla, standing, staring at the reeking pieces of leopard still clutched in his iron hands, fools the white hot scratches on his chest and thighs, equally with the sharp grief which from the meek hate-empty detachments of those dripping fragments bursts his
puzzled heart, to be part of a problem remote, cold and complete as some jig-saw mathematic."
There is much in the book to be grateful for, but there is much like this, and much of an allusive, literary facetiousness which does fantasy dis- service. Despite its touches of beauty and imagination, His Monkey Wife must be set down regretfully as a good dish spoiled in the cooking.
Barbara, the heroine of Several Faces, was the youngest of a suburban family, played lonely games, had school friends, went to Paris, loved a student, married Jack, went to bed with Anthony, then, with Stancomb.
. . Her story is redeemed by a naivete and a candour in the telling which often achieves a curious beauty, and often pieces of information such as . . . " there are times when even the most innocent of women would rather fear a man than trust him."
A very attractive first novel, covering a lot of ground, and written with sincerity and care : but my vote still goes to Mr. Landstone.
L. A. G. STRONG.
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