THE WALLS OF JERICHO. By Rudolph Fisher. (Knopf. 7s. 6d.)—The
first scene of this novel is laid in the " Pool Parlor of a New York slum. There are pages of unintelligible American slang, and we are led to expect raw melodrama. But the reader who allows himself to be discouraged at the outset will miss a most illuminating commentary on the Negro problem in the United States. The plot centres around the love of a coloured furniture-remover for a coloured maid- servant. But it is so flexibly manipulated that it serves to introduce a variety of White and Negro characters, and to throw subtle searchlights upon racial differences. Mr. Fisher is scrupulously fair. He does not whiten the Blacks. But he writes of them with keen sympathy and understanding, and as one who believes that they have a future." Apart from its " problem " interest, the story is well worth reading. It has vigour, humour, satire, and charm.
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