Epic?

THE ISLAND WITHIN-- Ludwig Lewisohn--Harpers ($2.50). The author, a Jew, was evidently in a sweat of fervor when he wrote this novel. He cries out in his preface: "Then, in God's name, let us tell wiser, broader, deeper stories-- stories with morals more significant and rich. . . . Let us recover, if possible, something of an epic note. To do that there is no need of high-flown words or violent actions. Only a constant sense of the streaming generations, of the processes of historic change, of the true character of man's magnificent and tragic adventure between earth and sky."

All through the story, which is divided, epically enough, into nine books, the author is striving for the "epic note." He makes the wife of a poor Jewish teacher in Russia in 1840 cry out: "Let us cry woe! Why should a father say that of his only son?" Then the tale moves swiftly through generations down to Arthur Levy, intelligent psychiatrist, in contemporary U. S. Mr. Levy marries a Christian woman, has a child by her. But he is troubled about his race, hurt by the slurs of Nordics; so he finally leaves his family to go on a Jewish mission in the Balkans. The thesis is that a Jew cannot lead a full and intellectually free life on earth when he does as Gentiles do. Many critics have passionately praised this book, but an epic is seldom written when an author is straining so mightily to create one.