The Kennedy People. By W. Pett Ridge. (Methuen and Co.
6s.)—Robert Kennedy, son of old Mr. Kennedy of the firm in Canonbury Square, has bad. to auote his sister, "advantages that poor Pa never, never had." He works at an office, produces an unsuccessful play, marries, and endows the world with a junior Kennedy. Since that is almost all the plot that we can discover in Mr. Pett Ridge's new novel, it is evident that he is coming to depend, for the value and interest of his work, more and more upon his skill as a. genre paiuter. He is content to make leisurely progress from page to page, with no especial stirring of fortune or of emotion. His book is simply a series of detailed, realistic " interiors " in High- bury. There is no need to emphasize the fact that Mr. Pett Ridge is a clever artist; he is, among modern English writers, the finest exponent of his particular art. Yet somehow—and we hasten to blame the war for our lack of appreciation—we cannot keep up an unflagging interest in three hundred pages of so trivial matters, however delicate he the manner of their setting.
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