5 OCTOBER 1929, Page 46

COUCOU. By Evelyn Pember. (Constable. 6s.)—Pictures of hotel society, presenting

occasional glimpses into various rooms at the same time, are among the fictional fashions of the moment, and we feel that Miss Pember has rather self- consciously imitated one or two recently successful models. All the same, she has contrived to give a fair degree of vitality to the company at the Provencal pension over which the comfortable, good-natured Madame Veuve des Jardins presides. Some of the characters, especially the two elderly English spinsters, belong to stock types, and the girl Coucou, flame-like, mysterious, and disturbing, remains perhaps a little too evanescent, though she affords a good enough focus for the chatter and the varied reactions of the other guests. The dialogue is clever and sometimes brilliant.