Pre-War to NRA

WITHIN THIS PRESENT -- Margaret Ayer Barnes--Houghton Mifflin ($2.50).

If Publisher Vincent Astor published fiction in Today, his houseorgan of the Roosevelt Administration, he could do worse than print at least the final part of Authoress Barnes's latest novel. It purports to be a study of the social changes which the War brought the U. S., and its peroration should certainly give aid & comfort to the New Dealers. "As I listened to that address [Roosevelt Inaugural] I was wishing I could live forever. Something new is beginning." Actually Within This Present is a pleasant, long-drawn-out story of a well-to-do and unremarkable Chicago family. Written with that fresh-cheeked, whole-souled enthusiasm that characterized the late Louisa M. Alcott's Little Women, the book goes through the motions of a serious novel but never strikes solid ground. Readers who remember that Authoress Barnes's Years of Grace won her the Pulitzer Prize (1931) may find their expectations disappointed; those who do not hold her high reputation against her should enjoy the story for what it is.

The Sewalls were F. F. C.'s (First Family of Chicago) and proud of it. But old Granny Sewall, remembering pioneer days, log cabins, the Great Fire, plain living and hard work, shook her head at some of the goings-on of her descendants. The Sewall bank was booming; they all had plenty of money and little to do for it; even before the War gave them an excuse to run wild, some of the Sewalls were slipping from the pioneer virtues. But Granddaughter Sally had good stuff in her; she sympathized with her Granny. Wartime and love's young dream threw her and Alan into each other's arms. For a while things got very serious for all the Sewalls. After the War Sally settled down to be a young matron; Alan went into the bank. Their personal crash came as the boom years ended. But Sally rescued her marriage from the way of all wrecks; the Sewalls pulled themselves together. It was a united and hopeful family, chastened by experience, that listened to the forward-looking Roosevelt Inaugural.

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