Fiction: Recent Books: Jun. 15, 1936

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VILLAGE CHRONICLE—James McConnaughey—Farrar & Rinehart ($2.50). A slice of life in a Carolina college town, centering about the behavior of a young English instructor who rashly challenges the established color-line, backs down under the pressure of community ostracism and an ailing wife.

RETURN TO COOLAMI—Eleanor Dark— Macmillan ($2.50). Author Dark makes conservative use of the stream-of- consciousness technique in a carefully manipulated account of a two-day motor trip in Australia, during which a serious marital tangle is straightened out.

THE INVISIBLE VOICES—M. P. Shiel— Vanguard ($2.50). Those who can retain their wits in a bout with Author Shiel's peculiar development of prose, his highly individualistic use of punctuation, may find diversion in his latest romantic mystery.

WIND WHICH MOVED A SHIP—Sophia Cleugh—Doubleday, Doran ($2). Witty enough to recall Rose Macaulay, too superficial to survive the comparison, Author Cleugh recounts the amorous and professional adventures of a beauteous, strongwilled, British concert pianist.

So FAIR A HOUSE—Welbourn Kelley— Morrow ($2.50). Reports the trials of a Carolina gentleman-writer and mill-owner who, already harassed by the task of bringing up three children in the absence of a philandering wife, becomes involved in a local labor war. Crammed with action and sexual intrigue, saturated with heavy sentiment, this chaotic melodrama reveals a disturbing picture of life in the South.

DAY OF IMMENSE SUN—Blair Niles— Bobbs-Merrill ($2.50). Historical romance set in 16th Century Peru. Author Niles, who spent two years on the scene absorbing local color, researching into Inca lore, turns out a monument to industry, if not artistry.

PERELA — Aldo Palazzeschi — Vanni ($2.50). Virtually unreadable fantasy, in dialog form, dealing with the adventures of a "man of smoke" in a nameless kingdom. Prescribed by the publisher as good for what ails "the tired businessman; the psychiatrist, psychologist or Freudian; the political radical or conservative; the artist, philosopher or poet; the scholar, teacher or student," Perela should put them all to sleep in short order.

THE WEATHER IN THE STREETS—Rosamond Lehmann—Reynal & Hitchcock ($2.50). The author of Dusty Answer, Invitation to the Waltz follows a too-familiar modern pattern. Olivia leaves her literary husband, slips into a love affair with the Prince Charming of her girlhood, finds out he is not worth the trouble he makes her.

THE BEST SHORT STORIES: 1936— Edited by Edward J. O'Brien—Houghton Mifflin ($2.50). The 22nd annual offering of one of the two best-known short- story annuals. The other: O. Henry Memorial Award, now in its 17th year.

Non-Fiction

GREEN MOUNTAINS TO SIERRAS—Zephine Humphrey—Dutton ($2.50). This record of the transcontinental motor tour of a Vermont painter and his wife makes pleasant reading, except for an occasional lapse into coyness. The Humphreys traveled for the winter on the price of their usual coal supply.