Books: Bankster's Moll

CASH ITEM—Catharine Brody—Longmans, Green ($2). Watchers for the U. S. Proletarian Novel have been disappointed again & again. Last year, when Catharine Brody published Nobody Starves, many of them hailed book and author with pent-up fervor. Though Cash Item disobeys the strictest canon of proletarian literature by having a "hero," a "heroine." its attack on U. S. economic conditions in general, on small-town banksters in particular, should raise more proletarian huzzas. Plain readers will find it uncomfortably interesting reading. More effective as anti-bankster propaganda than a more straightforward indictment, Cash Item is writtten in bare, matter-of-fact, day-to-day style. Authoress Brody lets her ordinary people's hopeless predicament and helpless indignation speak for themselves.

Deena was badly bitten by the ambition to get away from her cramping Michigan small town, her hopeless ne'er-do-well family. She wanted to get to Manhattan and the Broadway stage. But things were too much for her. Her worthless father died and Deena's hard-won savings went to pay for the funeral. She settled rebelliously down in Micmac, went back to work to get more money. When she met young Larry, bank teller in the local cathedral of commerce, the weather seemed a little brighter. Larry was a steady young fellow but those were boom days: the funny business that his superior banksters were involved in finally dragged him in too. When the boom broke and the bank was caught in the rush. Larry went to jail with the rest. But Deena was waiting for him when he came out.