Crabbed Youth

NOTHING (250 pp.)--Henry Green--Viking ($3).

When Henry Green's sly and sprightly Loving made its belated U.S. bow last fall (TIME, Oct. 10), the critics cheered and the public bought enough copies to push it onto bestseller lists. With his newest cultivated farce, Nothing, Author Green should do as well.

As stylized as a Restoration comedy and as antisocial as a Marx Brothers movie, Nothing squeezes the juice out of the proposition that Britain's younger generation has turned hopelessly dull and solemn, leaving most of the fun & games to the oldsters. True, says Henry Green, the older generation may be slightly absurd in its romantic nostalgias, even more than slightly devious in its morals--but look at the postwar youngsters!

Young Mary Pomfret and Philip Weatherby are office workers who are supposed to be in love but court each other as if they were filling out government forms. Instead of making love, they gossip about their scandalous parents, Widower Pomfret and Widow Weatherby, who had a torrid affair years back. Philip and Mary feel obliged to worry whether they may not be half brother and sister.

While the young sulk, the elders cavort. Papa Pomfret has an obliging mistress and Mama Weatherby flirts freelance. Each laments the drab respectability of the new generation. "Sometimes," says Mama Weatherby of her son, "I almost wonder if he knows the facts of life even. You see he respects girls so!" And Papa Pomfret wryly complains that he "has to implore his child not to be home at certain hours."

Philip and Mary announce their engagement, but they are no match for Mama Weatherby, who doesn't want her son to marry anybody as dreary as Mary is. While pretending to plan their marriage, she subtly sabotages it. Meanwhile she makes an all-out play for her old flame, Pomfret, with cozy dinners, warm reminders of old excitements, heartbreaking tears and a comfortable readiness to be kissed at the right moment. At the novel's end, Mary and Philip have gone off in different directions, but their elders are floating in the old euphoria.

Nothing is a pointed poke at solemn youth, but the poke is so obviously accompanied by so many friendly winks that even its victims will enjoy it.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.