Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Saturday 8 November 1952, page 7


Latest Fiction

Verbose But A Success

'SilnHm fife* TfcMMs « — 4 ???????ii- fcy Me»wf G*is«er. IIWnmm,

'Assam far Hire,' by R«m Rieaw*. (Fredarick Mailer, Lsmdmm. U/6). 'Mu iiiih Ammo.' fc» *UrMe Wmr. iHnUm nmi SliunkHm. Imim, !«/--. ^?OMPRESSING the ^^ essence of Thomas Wolfe into selections of 250,000 words, taking up little more than 700 pages, is a remarkable feat, or Wolfe's approach to literature matched his huge stature.

He wrote, standing, on the top of his ice-box for days on end. using large ledgers as notebooks, mttMng up episode* of 50.000 words each. and filing his ledgers and manuscripts to packing cases. When he was not feverishly writing, he was just as feverishly living and travelling. When he had written a million words or so be began to think it was time for him to lids the* material into shape for publication. But he task was beyond him: he had to call to outside aid to prune it. After three years of work, his first novel, 'Look Homeward. Angel/' was published — a mere 200.000 words. He threw out bis second novel entirely, and spent five years on his next, 'Of Time and the River.' Actually, the nine creative years of his life were spent in compiling one vast, sprawling autobiographical novel, of which portions were published. Wolfe was never satisfied with his work, and hated to let go of his manuscripts. When he died, at the age of 38, he left a million words to manuscript behind.

woue was a soutnerner, mm to 1900 to North Carolina. After school to the South, he went to Harvard, and later had a spell as a eacber. Then he went to London, and began his first novel when he was living in a email flat hi Chelsea. This verbose young man who put America so richly nto fiction was amazed at the success of his novels, for he felt that be was never able o say what he wanted to say. ['hat his writing has the indelible imprint of itnagitmUve power is amply shown to these selections from his novels, short stories, criticism rod autobiography that Mr. Qeismar has put into one volume.

AUSTRALIAN -lim and radio writer Rex Rienits, now living to London, originally wrote 'Assas-sin for Hire' as a radio drama. Now he has turned it into an exciting, if not a very convincing, novel. Its main character, Tony Riccardi. who deals in foreign stamps, and wi«a-»« murder of unknown victims a profitable sideline, is a carefully created and interesting enough Soho type; but the story degenerates into a most unlikely trick by a Scotland Yard detective to secure a confession from this callous and cunning murderer. Further to point his Crime Does Not Pay theme, Mr. Rienits includes to this volume 'Wide Boy,' a short story adapted from one of his many radio plays.

OJ1U uuc W11U * UU DNfC realistic climax than that of 'Assassin for Biro.' It's a tense, taut little story, an excellent piece of crime fiction of the Edgar Wallace genre. A A A A ROMANCE set to Melbourne at the time of Federation— and with the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York as one of the background highlights— Marjorie Weaver's 'Nevermore Alone' tells a story of a motherless girl who marries against her hard-headed newspaper proprietor father's wishes, and realises — all too soon and all too late— that she has married a waster. Mrs. Weaver is a former English journalist married to an Australian and living in Melbourne. She has a happy knack of producing popular, enjoyable, romantic fiction.

THOMAS WOLFE

THOMAS WOLFE