The Key West Citizen Newspaper, June 20, 1953, Page 10

Key Books 1 YOU YOUNG PEOPLI TO BE LEO By THE HAND! IN MY WE WERE RAISED TO. BE A. THEY COULDN'T BECAUSE OF THE PRPS HURE, THEIR WORLD WAS UP THERE TWO Pe AINT SPRAWLED OUT ONDER a FOOL TREE by A. de T. Gingras (THE HOUSE BY THE MEDLAR TREE by Giovanni Verga, trans- lated from the Italian by Erie Mos- bacher, novel, published by Grove Press, 59 W. 9 Street New York City, 247 pages.) This novel, even in translation, is an enriching and probably en- during literary experience. But there are times when the reader isn’t sure Giovanni Verga is a gentleman. Even an author hasn’t the right to hit an old man when he is down, és many times as. Mr. Verga does his principal character, Master ‘Ntoni Malavog- lia, If this novel had been more widely translated, Balzac’s “‘Le Pere Goriot” wouid long ago have had to relinquish the doubtful honor of being the elderly fictional man most kicked about by fate and pro- geny. . : Giovanni Verga writes of a Sicil- ian fishing village of about 100 years ago. ‘The Malavoglia family who live inthe house by the medlar tree have been good and honest fisher- folk for many generations: Then something goes wrong. Misfortune comes to the family beginning with a too-venturesome business’ -deal, and continuing more fundamentally when Master "Ntofi’s "Ntoni, the grandson who is next in line to be head of the family, runs ‘amuck. And the modern reader has an interesting reaction to this young man ’Ntoni. Accustomed to the ad- vantages of modern unionism, the reader is often in sympathy with this family black sheep. Young *Ntoni protests against the rat race NoauoD HSV1d WOLNVHd 3HL often pitiful pay for his labor. He sees some of the members of the community taking advantage of the more childlike and honest citi- zens. In his service in the Navy and on a fortune-seeking excursion to the city, he vbserves how some people beyond his native village have advantages and wealth, and others do not. If poor ’Ntoni takes to drink, smuggling and general disintegration, the modern reader does feel that his inherent protest | is partially legitimate. | Mr. Verga is a good story teller. | He isn’t trying to sell the reader social reform, or better education, or a change of religious attitude. He isn’t completely sold on the} oyster ideal of the family. But he shows its pull on the members as the family maintains itself as ah entity, surrounded by the inani- mate things which have maintained through several generations of ani- mate beings. He shows the tragedy of ignorance, and of superstition blended with religion. At the same time his appreciation for the sim- ple life of the fishing village is very much in evidence through the whole novel. An interesting technique is used in the unfolding of the story andj in the portrayal-of the principal characters. The author weaves back and forth describing what a Wezen™minor village characters in and out of the Malavoglia family } think about each other, and the story situations as they develop. This is done in a seemingly un- | studied and leisurely fashion. NVIDIDVW JHL IAVYAGNVN L104 Nag DIG FTDOOD AINNWS of long hours and the fisherman's | \“‘the only reason I am not sending Chapter 11 ‘HE kitchen was small and overhot. The smell of the rich food gagged Mandell. He forced himself to eat to please his Mother, wondering if he would ever stop sweating again. ¥ s He couldn't stay where he was much longer. Mr. Curtis’ -body would have been. found by_now. ‘The cats were wailing in the Loo) looking for Barney Mandell. He choked on a piece of Polish sau- sage. And somewhere in Chicago was a man who had tried to kill him. Mr. Curtis had been killed by mistake. The shots had been meant for him. ahs “Eat, eat,” his mother insisted. She patted his broad back. “Is everything all right now.” It was a statement, not a ques- tion. Mandell wished the old lady was right. But until the matter of his sanity was settled, nothing would ever be right for him, He regretted. the scene with Rosemary. He should have kept his hands off the kid. Looxing back, he could see why she had acted as she had. Rosemary had always considered herself his girl. Even if he hadn't taken her any- where, except maybe to White City once or twice and to a few neighborhood parties. Maybe that was why Joe was sore at him. Maybe~Joe thought he ‘should have married Rosemary. But he'd never even thought of Rosemary that way. She was just the kid next door. He should have told her about Mr. Curtis, about the holes in his hat. Rosemary didn’t think he was crazy. She'd said so. His tie was too tight, Mandell loosened it. Rosemary was a nurse. She ought to know. But then, why had he imagined the things he had, done the crazy things he'd done? Loosening his tie didn’t help. His throat still felt con- stricted. Bustling between the stove and the table, her movements as bird- like as her eyes, his mother dis- tributed the accumulated neigh- borhood information. “And a de- tective now, Pat is. Working nights by the state’s attorney. And instead of wearing his uni- form, he goes to work in his best suit. At even more money, yet.” Boy Saves Dad From Sentence GENEVA, Il. —Louis Molner, 41, who punished his 12-year-old son by chaining him to a chair, escaped a jail sentence because the boy did not want him sent away. Imposing a fine of $500 and costs against Moiner Thursday, County Judge Charles G. Seidel told him: you to jail is that your son : want you to go to jail.” The judge told Molner, a re- search engineer, he could have sent him to jail for a year and fined him up to $1,000. He was charged sae endangering the life and health of his son, Gary. Judge Seidel told the boy's mother he could have found her | equally guilty with her husband for ; son tied up like an animal. , While it isn’t always as neat as | other devices, the total effect at) the end of the book is a most com- plete picture, not only of the Mala- | voglia family who live in the house } by the medlar tree, but also of the | people of the village who are the Gary said he was chained to a chair for failing to play up to his father's standards in a baseball igame; for not cleaning the yard and for playing with matches. WITCH-HUNT very important background figures on the canvas of the novel. } Another feature of the book is} worthy of comment. The modern reader, accustomed to adultery in every sixth chapter and seductions | lavishly sprinkled throughout the text, is almost surprised by the | basic morality of must of the peo-/ j ple. When courtships and marri- fa} ages are described, they are men- > ‘tioned only delicately, and with no Freudian probing. The one girl in | the book who goes wrong, does so ™! with such diffidence on the author's Sj/ part, that the reader is not at all sure exactly how wrong she does go. THE WILD HONEY by Victoria Lincoln, collection of short stories. published by Rinehart and Co 232 Madison Avenue New York City, 238 pages More and m | writers are coll | stories for book pu | And such c value not UIHLVI dN ONTONIUa -™ magazine fiction ting their shor ication ons have real going to her job and leaving SEATTLE w—The man whose | weather eye helped set D-day in Europe in World War II says at- tempts to link atom bomb explo- sions and tornadoes is “‘just anoth- er manifestation of the witch-hunt-’ ing complex.” Dr. George H, T. Kimble, direc tor of the American Geographica' Society, said here Thursday that Americans “still are a very super- stitious people.”’ “Every time there’s something we can't explain, we have to have a witch. I’m afraid Congress will get very little change for its money | if it seriously tries to link the recent tornadoes to. atom bomb/ explosions.” | | | Explained why it was that Dick went to work | this morning singing as I never Neighbor — “What was it?” Mrs. Loungbride ~~ 1 made a ke and gave joie de vivre eatly lost her to} describes the early adoles-| college years of Rose Car- | antation te a northern The years described are the | Mrs. Loungbride — Now I know heard him sing before. | him birdseed | . In “Make Me Real” Miss} a southern girl who goes | wenties when Calvin Coolidge | “That's swell,” Mandell said. “Just swell.” He forced more food | beli: down his throat. “Look, Ma. Do you remember Uncle Vladimir?” “Why not? He was Pa’s brother.” “Did he have any money?” Ma Mandell hooted. “Whoever heard of a college professor with money?” She said, earnestly, § “Better he should work with his hands and get a union scale. When Tings, Soe aoe age coer a four dollars re; evel week he used to send to the old so Vladimir and Sofie count ois cel Bp brains Gace ip ne [cma money, Barney.” “When did you last hear from him?” The old lady considered the question. “Is fourteen, fifteen years. Since just before Pa died. But why you ask such a question?” Py Mandell forked the last piece of sausage on his plate and forced it down. “Forget it. Maybe I'm} ..:4 still crazy.” His mother was indignant as she filled his coffee cup. “Get drunk?. Yes. Fight? Yes. Go to jail? Yes. But no Maneztochski was ever crazy. By the end of the Irving Park streetcar is never a Manceztochski. Out of their minds they were, whoever put you in such a place.” She sat in the chair across from him. “Look, Barney. Tell an old lady some- thing.” “Yeah?” “I brought you up good, didn’t I? I tried to teach you good from bad, what was right from wrong? When you were a bad boy, I licked you with,a stick?” Mandell reached across the table and patted her small hand. “You beat me, Ma.” His mother fondled the big —— fingers on her hand. ‘or your own good. Now about/ fried this bad thing in the paper, Bar- ney. About what they say you did to that girl. It isn’t so, is it, Barney? You weren't bad with her, were you? You didn’t hit her?” _ Mandell said soberly, “I’m posi- tive I didn’t, Ma. I was drunk, but not that drunk. Besides, drunk | sumed or sober, I wouldn’ girl.” 't ever hit a BLIND YOUNGSTER FINDS A HOME be 20. bilities 21. Ribbed cloth 21. Trees 25. Malt beverage 26. Footlike 37. Uneasay 21. Stone SEF 8 a with Rosemary. He Pat. Perhaps Pat would adv’ him what to do, even if ell ¥s8 the stove. “For my looked frightened. arth was president ai the women wore j koee-length sack shaped dresses. The author also Coes some very ting stories cbout adults she de tting of a long! and a long | writers ¢ foften f fl penetrat t i % wide ¢” a busy mother and housewife | wa inte a childhood sweetheart. The stories are never highly plet-| ted. fey depend inc their charm a the ac s complete wunder-| é tes shea! which | ast her So entality | See etpie im her stories nh Sane PB BER it We R BRE nee é