Unhappy Days

IN TRAGIC LIFE--Vardis Fisher--Doubleday, Doran ($2.50).

Latest addition to the ranks of U. S. tetralogy-writers is Author Vardis Fisher. He will not be the least. The first volume of his projected four shows enough of his hand to indicate that he will have to be reckoned with. In Tragic Life is not his first novel nor is this its first edition: it was published early this year by Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho. Readers whose stomachs cannot stand strong meat had better not dip in here, but for those who can, its morbidly realistic sauce will not conceal its true tragic flavor.

Author Fisher does not share the popular superstition that childhood is a happy, happy time. Certainly the childhood of Vridar Hunter was not happy. Eldest son of a poor Idaho farmer and his puritanic wife, Vridar grew up in a shack where food was scarce, comfort unheard-of, with no companions but his younger brother and sister. His parents did not think farming the noblest occupation of man; they were grimly determined that their children should get an education and escape to something better. Vridar was a sensitive, delicate child, subject to convulsions and haunting fears. The sight of blood made him sick. Though he lived on a farm, his frigid mother for a long time succeeded in keeping him ignorant of the simplest biological facts. Vridar took to reading as an escape; much poring over the Bible helped convince him that he had seen a vision, that he would be a prophet.

When he and his brother Mertyl went off to board with an aunt and go to school, Vridar was constantly being forced into fights. Always frightened, when it came to the point he went berserk with despair, usually rushed his startled opponent off his feet. Then, just when life was getting a little easier, girls came into the picture. Painfully shy and equally susceptible, Vridar fell prey to another set of bullies. The story leaves him still in his teens, in the comic-tragic age, haunted by the chimeras of Sin and Nobility. Between the two Vridar had a bad time, nearly went insane with brooding. The story ends on a comparatively cheerful note, with the ghosts that are tormenting Vridar's half-crazy conscience blown away in gusts of healthy laughter.

Author Vardis Fisher is working on the next volume, to be called Passion Spins the Plot.

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