GOD HAVE MERCY ON US. By William T. Scanlon. (Noel
Douglas. 7s. 6d.)—Still the War books continue ! The publishers of this one, which is the joint winner of a £5,000 prize in America, claim that it is " distinguished above all other War novels." Actually, it is less of a novel than most of them and, therefore, contains an even greater proportion of war stuff and horror. It is written in jerkyi
breathless style, almost as though the author, had gone.into battle with a reporter's notepad and had written his staccato comments on shell-fire, raids and Sudden death, in between Tinhe; into No Man's Land and during intervals when he had fallen into shellholes. -He shifts constantly from the past !to the present tense, and records conversations, orders and 'groans in such a first-hand way that one can almost hear the gs.-.ps at the end of these. There is no doubt that the vividness .!cf the style is effective : it is also, perhaps deliberately, very exhausting. We, as readers, feel limp at the end of three .chapters ; by the end of six, we are as weary as though we too had been carrying heavy burdens from the front lines. 'Yet there is some compelling quality about the book that :forms us to go on with it, though we have read the same sort of thing many times before. Those who arc ready for another, 'stark War hook will find their need fulfilled in this, which is written in the manner of a detailed film synopsis.
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