Libel

OUR GENERATION--By "One of Us."--Century ($1.50). If they could believe that "One of Us," aged 17, is typical, the shakers of heads at contemporary adolescence would sigh with relief. She speaks, like her elders and Dr. Holmes's woodpecker, solemnly of unimportant things. "Bright as a button" well describes her. She is as wholesome as spinach. As for her generation (unless as may be, she is utterly typical), it will be faintly disturbed by writing which for docile triteness resembles nothing so much as one of Dr. Prank Crane's high-school themes. It is to be hoped that the whole book is a gross libel.

Excerpts:

"By now we all know that 'Gentlemen prefer blondes,' but some men do not seem to realize the fact that 'blondes prefer gentlemen.' "

"The glamor of love seems to flee very soon. We wonder what we can do to retain that elusive thing called romance."

"Some say that romance is a thing of the past, but the truth is that as long as there are men and women in the world there will be romance. ... In these days of commonplace materialism we need only go to the movies to find it in full sway on the screen and in the audience."

"Each [husband and wife] should be unselfish and considerate of the other and both try to keep the optimism and cheerfulness of their youth ... he ought to realize that a wife is a partner."

"An advantage of telephone conversation is the fact, that the ONE at the other end cannot see you. Half the time, much to the disgust of your family, you go to the telephone in kimono and cold cream. Disillusion would certainly be the fate of the ONE at the other end if he could see his darling with shining face, her hair done up in inartistic Western Electrics."

"It is always such fun to do things in a foreign country with American friends who take the same delight in the novelty.