Love in a Life. By Allan Monkhouse. (Methuen and (Jo.
6s.) —John Axon, the hero of this novel, is an interesting person. Born in the working class and a Socialist by conviction, he raises himself to a position of responsibility in his work, and suddenly sickening of life in Manchester, determines to give himself a holiday,—not a holiday from work, but from town. He there- fore goes to live for a time in a suburb, where he can come up and down, and taste some of the joys of the country. He makes acquaintances, is introduced into the society Of the suburb, falls in love, and then comes the struggle between his conviction that he should go back to live with the people in whose midst he was born and the longing to marry his love and, as he conceives, be a traitor to his own class. The book is interesting, and the characters live and move and are not marionettes. Perhaps the final separation between the hero and heroine is not sufficiently "motived " ; but as the hero belongs to what he himself calls "queer, uncomfortable people," it is naturally difficult to follow the workings of his "queer, uncom- fortable " conscience. One thing must be further said in praise of the book ; John Axon is not a prig; from that he is saved by his sense of humour. It argues a considerable dexterity on the part of the author to create a hero of this type of character, endow him with lifelike qualities, and yet save him from Priggish' nes& The book is altogether well worth reading.
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