THE OTHER PASTURE
BARDIN, JOHN FRANKLIN
The Other Pasture Review by JOHN FRANKLIN BAKDIN BUND ALLEY. By Georges Simenon. Sew York: Reynai & Hitchcock. $2.50. UNTIL now, authors of detective stories and mysteries hare been unable to...
...By Harold H. Fhhtr...
...Russia has as many if not more differences in her wage scale aa the United States, and surely the author must know that top jobs are reserved for Communist Party members only...
...Fiaher, have followed the rise and decline of the Comintern, which was dissolved in 1943...
...The theft is discovered, Blinis is discharged—but Vladimir does not succeed in his advances to Helene...
...In essence, the author advocates a permanent New Deal, with tho government acting as a "safety valve" whenever our mythical system of "free enterprise" fails to do its job...
...Simenon's style in this book is precisely that of his detective stories: a chatty, yet objective, accounting of the facts...
...Ho is perhaps too optimistic, in the light of past experieneo, if ha expects unequivocal support of governmental meliorism and so-called interference ia times of peace and relative well-being...
...As it is, Blind Alley is a pre ten tin us detective story without a detective...
...With its end, the author believes, the Kremlin rulers have definitely abandoned all hope for a world revolution and have turned towards greater cooperation with the "capitalist" powers...
...175 page: $2.50...
...This enables her to exert a queer moral blackmail over him—only she knows what he has done, she is, an aging woman in need of a lover, she will not tell if he will not desert her...
...It bears a closer resemblance to the "inverted" detective story—the kind whet a the reader is privy to the murderer's thoughts and wutchs him commit the crime, then follows the investigation from tho criminal's point of view...
...Thus far, Soviet Russia and the United States have emerged as the only definitely great powers in the world...
...Fisher is a "One Worlder," he ia convinced that good will on both sides will eliminate tha exiating difficulties and permit tho eatablishment of real cooperation under the auapices of a world government, This is in fact the only solution to tha problem of American-Soviet relatione the author has to offer: Good Will...
...ThIS is a convincing plea of an outstanding public servant for permanent planning in our economic life...
...The author forgets their deeds and only remembers their promises...
...Coming from a former business executive, It Is a fervent affirmation of a positive philosophy of government, and as such It can only be applauded...
...American-Soviet frictions, according to Or...
...concept rather than an economic one and meant political freedom, the Bill of Rights, etc...
...Unfortunately this is not the rase...
...It is futile to use the Dr...
...Without it, we sre warned, instead of one world we shall have none...
...His books ambled, rather than sped, and gave the reader the impression that their author had a genuine talent for naturalistic narrative...
...Jeanne is roughly sketched In—all I can say for her la that she is more believable than most rich women in fiction...
...None of the other directors haa any depth, nor do they atand for anything In tha macrocosm...
...UNTIL now, authors of detective stories and mysteries hare been unable to pass off their works as "literature...
...Any conclusion would seem arbitrary...
...This is emphasized by a review of our relations with Russia from the years before the first World War...
...it is cogent, but its surfaces are flat and dull...
...Harold Fiaher, chairman of the Hoover Institute and Library of War, Eevolution and Peace at Stanford Uruvjersity, who visited Russia in the early Twenties as an officer of the American Relief Administration, may have had a better than average opportunity to add aomething new to the discussion of American-Soviet relations...
...Soviet democracy will be far removed from American democracy," but, we are told, cooperation is possible...
...The Russian Government guaranteed liberty to the individual by seeing to it that he had a job, a place to live and education, medical service and so on...
...Bowles vividly traces insecurity and inequality in America and—in somewhat oversimplified terms—advancea a program of gradual redistribution of wealth...
...SINCE the end of the war American readers have been swamped by a veritable deluge of books on American-Soviet relations...
...Simon & Schuster, 194G...
...His publishers term his book "a novel...
...The suthor claims that America and the Soviets are unjustly suspicious of each other, that they both have much in common, such as a constitution guaranteeing the Four Freedoms, the protection of the Little Man and "the expression of humanitarian equality...
...The Communist Party's instructions to the Soviet people sre clearly, to cultivate their own garden...
...Stalin has so far broken twenty-eight treaties, and has not even carried out the agreements of Yalta...
...The technological advances of the nineteenth and twentieth century and the decline and rise of some world powers have resulted in a political, economic and social revolution which is still continuing...
...Economic equality was abolished in 1929 and is laughed about now as a "counter-revolutionary" invention...
...With choice not very roomy Between alternatives: To end in quick explosion, And sadden silence, or In ultimate erosion By aaJveraal snore...
...It is true that this is "one World" technically, and that if we do not come to an agreement with Russia we...
...But strangest of all is his interpretation of "Democracy...
...Those who interpret "every act of the Soviet Government in the worst possible sense" are' taken to task for making "relations with Russia more difficult...
...Vladimir's willing assumption of Blinis' economic debasement is perfunctory and seems almost to be an afterthought, a coda that allows tha book to end on a note of spiritual triumph which is poorly adumbrated...
...TOMORROW WITHOUT FEAR...
...The Coue System in Politics Reviewed by LEON GOUre AMERICA AND RUSSIA IN THE WQRLD COMMUNITY...
...Nor have their books sold as well as the bestsellers (although their sales usually exceed those of the "literary" novel...
...He finds Blinis destitute, gives him nesrly all the money he has and gains spiritual satisfaction in re-enacting Blinis' poverty...
...Needless to say, other ingredients would have to be added to make up for the lack of suspense (an irony implicit in the "suspense" novel is the fact that suspense is what it does not have): the plot and characters would have to symbolize some conflict in the real world, there would have to he a theme, an organic growth of some one or more personalities and even, perhaps, a discursive, flexible style...
...If we are to reach an agreement with the Soviets which will promise real peace, it will not be because we delude ourselves with the idea of "Soviet democracy" or, see in the Russians the "liberators of system of self-hypnosis in order to change Europe...
...The problem finally arises of present day American-Soviet relstions...
...Fisher's lectures beginning with a reference to the revolution through which the world is passing and its effects on international relations...
...Claremoni College...
...Vladimir is vaguely jealous of his friend because of this, although he is not fully aware of the facts, and to rid himself of competition for Helene he steals Jeanne's prized diamond ring and plants it among Blinis' possessions...
...Vladimir is an unthinking man, and even his feelings are diffused by liquor...
...Robert M. Hutchins...
...Fisher's eagerness to cooperate, is his belief that "Russia is potentially our greatest customer...
...Richard Armour...
...What is wrong with this...
...The guilt he feels In connection with his betrayal of his friend pursues him and causes him to'confess his crime to Jeanne...
...Larking both cultural and economic status, many detective-story writers are now striving to escape the limitations of their medium altogether by writing what their publishers term: "suspense" novels or "nov«ls of character...
...They both sleep with their employer, and Blinis—an aimiable moron — contrives to sleep with her daughter, Helene, as well...
...Coue the devil into an angel...
...They are called the "Two Worlders" as opposed to the virtuous "One Worlders" to whom Dr...
...1.00...
...Why, indeed, be suspicious of the Soviets...
...Had there been a detective through whom the various threads of the story could be filtered aa evidence, who could deduce Vladimir's guilt and challenge him with it—thua setting forth the sinner-confessor, murderer-detective pattern—Simenon might have been a step nearer representation...
...It could be accomplished without this, of course (although even K. was arrested snd Raskolnikov was investigsted), but only by making Vladimir articulate and sentient...
...If, however, mystery authors try to palm off commercial books by adding enough of the mannerisms of the novel to justify tbeir blurb writers' claims of masterful character portrayal, this tendency can lend greater ambiguity to an already confused literary scene while giving aid to the philistines in their war of attrition against the artist...
...One reads: "Both Communist democracy and Capitalist democracy aim at achieving a classlsss society...
...Certainly there are great differences between the Soviet snd the American way of life...
...He can envisage perfect class cooperation...
...Vladimir and Blinis are both white Russians who are friends and fellow employees of a rich woman, Jeanne Patelier...
...may have war...
...But why be suspicious...
...END IN VIEW "If we are not all killed in the next few years, we will be bored to death...
...So was Japan until December 7, 1041...
...The reader hears the old argument that the Russian people loves to bow to "the little father in the Kremlin," whether he be the tsar or Comrade Stalin, because there is no democratic tradition in its history...
...equality of opportunity...
...Hs svan goes so iar as to believe that "tho people will not tolerate stupidity...
...Fisher believes in^the One World principle and in the necessity for a strong U.N...
...which will not, as the League of Nations did, "support anti-Soviet policies...
...Georges Simenon—famous as the creator of Inspector Maigrct—in his new book...
...Hence, there is no growth of personality, but only a poorly connected series of emotional states that have been juxtaposed into a dramatic relationship...
...his dream of a happy past with his friend is grounded upon a latent homosexuality which, though common enough in this type of personality and therefore real, seems meaningless in the context of this book...
...Simenon's previous novellas had unusual charm: they combined a gift for the bizarre in plots with a gossipy, pettybourgeois understanding of the French character that was at once diverting and compassionate...
...Dr...
...So fur, I have encountered no reconverted detectivo-story writer who aspires to the avant-garde...
...Vladimir's personality is as fully developed in the first twenty pages of the book aa it is at the end...
...If tho author falls to convince us that his protagonist behaves credibly, it is because at the outset we never quite accepted Vladimir's casual and impulsive motives for sinning sgainst his friend...
...A PROSPECT chill and gloomy Chicago's proxy gives...
...Fisher claims to belong...
...But since the Soviet Government has chosen to disregard the good will of the Roosevelt policy, the solution to our relations must be found elsewhere than in Dr...
...Since Dr...
...Fisher forgot that Russia has greatly changed since his last visit there...
...He is a dipsomaniac with fugitive illusions of grandeur...
...Strangely enough he seems to forget that the aggressor nations, Germany, Italy and Japan, were no longer members of the League at the time they made their attacks, and that Russia was the only country to be expelled from the league for aggression...
...There are no flashbacks, no introspecHon...
...By Chester Bowlet...
...According to Dr...
...Eventually, he is driven to kill her and to seek out Blinis in a Polish slum to tell him Helene is with child and that Blinis is the father...
...Yst tha entire point of the book, tha need of' tha Individual lot salvation through expiation, depends upon Vladimir's regeneration...
...If anyone could drop the massive dose of adrenalin the chase provides in the ronton polieier and still write a sound piece of fiction, Simenon might...
...which thus far has been a politics...
...Russia has emphasized equality in economic and cultural- relations...
...Fisher's concept German naxism would then have been also "democratic...
...Maybe on* of the reasons for Dr...
...Guilt is his only strong emotion, and it engenders the lukewarm hate that drives him to kill the corrupt old woman who has morally enslaved him...
...To the author, labormanagement conflicts are not necessary concommitants of our system...
...Nothing, if the books that appear under these curious names make a serious attempt to lie literature...
...Blind Alley, is the latest to attempt this transition...
...Unfortunately tho majority of writera on the subject did not bring any new thought or solution u> tho existing difficulties but went on rehashing the same phrases and hynotising themselves thst they had found THE ANSWER...
...Apparently the millions of people in Soviet concentration camps have "equality of opportunity" with those in the Kremlin...
...Fisher's book...
...Fisher argues that both powers have much in common and that tho only road to peace must follow a true Russo-American understanding...
...Only the fullest knowledge about the Soviets can help us find a solid basis for world peace...
...America and Russia in the World Community is a collection of Dr...
...To the sceptic and cynic, Bowles' faith will appear naive...
...To persuade America to bo less suspicious of the Soviet regime, tho author has Invented a brand new meaning for the word "Democracy...
...This story of Vladimir's betrayal of his friend Blinis, his guilt and his groping for expiation, begins st the beginning and without any foolishness proceeds to have a middle and an end...
...He has no insight into his own subjective states—the reader ia told about his feelings and actions, they are not represented...
...Soviet influence has been successful only in Asia, where its principle of racial equality has a great appeal and where it clashes with our Open Door policy...
...It was obvious that everybody understood that there lay the principal problem of world peace...
...President of University of Chicago...
...These are shown to have been cordial at most times until the Revolution and then to have steadily deteriorated, reaching their lowest point during the RussoFinnish war...
Vol. 30 • January 1947 • No. 3
