BOOKS OF THE WEEK

Kindliness and fortitude are so seldom to be experienced in this world today, that to have them vividly brought to us in the person of Mrs. Barry is an unforgettable pleasure. Mr. Niven has written a touching, well modulated masterpiece in depicting the homely vicissitudes of a woman of simple means and charitable disposition. She lacks education, but she possesses a fund of knowledge of the things which are secured spontaneously through the heart, rather than through the more prosiac mind.

With Mrs. Barry, we find her young son, Neil, a fellow who would bring vexation, heartache and happiness to the mother who wished to do so much for him with so very little at her command. He is superbly set down. His inquisitiveness and untactfulness are truly boy-like and unheeding of the deep hurt they bring to his mother. She accepts his adolescent questioning and carries it off gracefully and shrewdly until the danger is passed.

Mr. Niven does remarkably well in keeping the story above sentimentality. His style depends considerably on the fineness of his use of dialogue and his characters speak only for themselves. He builds a story somewhat reminiscent of the work of Katherine Mansfield. However, his quality goes deeper than hers--he has, as she had, a gift for extracting the essentials of a little episode so that every word secures a worth and richness of effect seldom obtained in literature. The loving kindness of Mrs. Barry, the course, unskillful ministrations of her neighbors, the youthful vitality of Neil combine to form a work of fiction which is grandly close to life itself.

A Journalistic Cop . . .

A Cop Remembers. By Captain Cornelius W. Willemse. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.00

Captain Willemse's book is an account of a life-time spent actively on the New York City police force. Beginning with the racy, humorous narrative of the author's voyage to America after his running away from Holland, the book continues swiftly and soon is taken up by Captain Willemse's adventures and escapades in the famous, or rather infamous "Tenderloin" district of New York's Bowery.

The arduous steps upward toward the detective bureau captaincy bring to the author a host of intimate glimpses into the sordid and gruesome lives of New York's meaner, more unfortunate social classes. The stories are bluntly told, occasionally with a touch of sentimentality; then again with pathos and even with indignation.

His philosophy of life is expressed in loamy phrases and one finds no deep probing into causes and effects of the fantastic people and events he sets down for us in his reportorial style. He presents his factual data and is quite content with that alone. The journalistic tendency is marked because it is probable the author has made extensive use of newspaper files to refresh his memory. Facetiously, one might say, "this cop remembers" with the excellent aid of police records and the friends he has made during the length of his career.