Moods

A VARIETY OF PEOPLE--Don Marquis-- Doubleday-Doran ($2).

Don Marquis is an ex-colyumist who has taken to writing "seriously." But he is still enough of the colyumist to feel that he should sugar the pill. In this book of short stories, the grim alternates with the comic strip, the eerie with the whimsical. Among the exhibits: a strong silent farmer overhears the hired man seducing his wife; Tim O'Meara tells his sons how his great diplomatic ancestor tickled the fancies of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary; the Old Soak exudes a tale of spiritual wickedness and liquor in high places; the powerful Katinka in a circus has a heart of gold but a terrible temper when annoyed. Ultimately the old story about the glass-eater is put in print. It is a poor finale, for this hoary anecdote belongs with the one about the man with the beard, and Chic Sale's The Specialist. No bedtime story, it finds itself uncomfortable between these stiff white sheets.

Don Marquis can write simply, but would rather write arabesques. When he rides his high horse, he is a long way off the ground. But sometimes he gets a startling phrase. In The Right Knife he describes a night club servant as "a pallid night-blooming waiter who was a part of the fauna of these regions, moving like a gray slug among their distempered flora."

The characters in this book are not really a variety of people, they are a variety of Don Marquis moods.