Good Books

The following estimates of books most in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:

THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD--Philip Gibbs--Doran ($2.00). If you want to learn about the present state of public affairs in Europe, quite without inconvenience, read The Middle of the Road. If you don't care about Europe, but would like to read the interesting tale of the estrangement of a young war veteran from his aristocratic modern young wife, here still is the book for you, although Sir Philip is not a great literary artist.

THE ENCHANTED APRIL--the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden--Doubleday ($1.90). Four London women, leaving their husbands behind them, spend an enchanted April in an Italian castle. The tiny rapier of the author's wit, her penetration and her sympathy, give the characters reality and the setting charm.

GOING-TO-THE SUN--Vachel Lindsay--Appleton ($1.75). Mr. Lindsay is not crazy. But in the very excited intensity of his sanity there is a sort of madness. His verse shouts and capers in a boisterous exuberance of imagination. He flings images at you--talking flowers, magic roosters " that no storm can tame," amiable mountain cats, comets. The longest and most flaming of all these poems is called So Much the Worse for Boston.

THE GENTLEMAN FROM SAN FRANCISCO--I. A. Bunin--Seltzer ($1.50). These are four Russian short stories worthy to be spoken of in the same breath with those of Tchekov; two of them--the title story and Gentle Breathing -- are almost perfect. Bunin's plots are unimportant. He has the power to make bald facts live flamingly.

SKEETERS KIRBY--Edgar Lee Masters--Macmillan ($2.00). Skeeters starts in as a boy; continues through a period of heavy drinking, sexual misbehavior, hard thinking, unsuccessful marrying, and a distasteful attempt at the law: finally finds himself as a poet. The book aims high. Whether it is uniformly successful is open to question. It is, at all events, vivid, powerful--and outspoken.

SALOME OF THE TENEMENTS--Anzia Yezierska--Boni ($2.00). A flaming Polish Jewess, from New York's ghetto, marries a highly refined settlement worker. After a stormy interval she finds him insufficiently passionate and turns to one of her own race. The world as she sees it is the theme of the book. The author knows her subject at first hand and makes it surpassingly vivid.