BUTTERED SIDE DOWN. By Edna Ferber. (Methuen. 7s. 644—There is
nothing in Miss Edna Ferber's twelve new stories of Chicago which can change the opinion previously expressed in these columns that one of her first novels, The Girls, which also dealt with Chicago, was her best book. These short sketches tell of the daily life of ordinary middle- class people, but in them Miss Ferber does not reach the level of a former collection which contained those admirable stones " Gigolo " and "The Sudden Sixties." "The Kitchen Side of the Door "—Miss Ferber is nothing if not " homely " in her titles—and "One of the Old Girls" are the most successful in presenting an original point of view to the British reader. The whole dozen are, however, eminently readable and are an admirable reminder of the pleasant quality of Miss Ferber's work.
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