Hounded People

THE SOUND OF RUNNING FEET--Josephine Lawrence--Stokes ($2.50).

Victor Luth, a goodhearted, 65-year-old real estate operator, had a painful, recurring dream. "I dream I am hurrying down a street," he told his brother. "No one's ahead of me. But behind me I hear the sound of running feet. ... I begin to be afraid. I start to walk faster. . . . When I reach the corner, I find the street still stretches before me, deserted, straight. I keep going at top speed. . . . The sound of running feet behind me comes nearer and nearer, I know a hand will touch me in a moment--then I wake!''

With this symbolic nightmare providing a pattern, Author Lawrence (Years Are So Long, If I Have Four Apples) has written a 307-page novel revolving around Luth's employes who are all on the run, and whose panic presumably inspires their employer's bad dreams. The office force of River, Mead & Luth, after seven years of hard times, has begun to churn with dissatisfaction; the young people want higher wages, the old hands want a raise, Luth believes he has done a great deal for his employes by merely keeping them at work. When young, excitable Gregory Marsh proposes a union and draws up a contract, the force splits, the young people supporting the union, the oldsters indifferent.

Thereafter Author Lawrence follows each employe home to reveal what lay back of his decision; Gregory wanting to marry, ambitious Johnny Palmet trying to get luxuries for his extravagant wife, Kati Oliver wanting to raise a child, frightened little Mureth Gavril trying to escape her mother's dominance, all with their noses close to the grindstone, all burdened with debts, worry, obligations to relatives, making unappreciated sacrifices and impossible plans. On the other side the Luth brothers are fanning a feeble flicker of business, trying to keep from taking losses, while their children make foolish marriages, family parasites drain away their incomes. A sentimental and static tale despite this promising dramatic setup, The Sound of Running Feet ends inconclusively with little more than the presentation of the dilemmas of the characters, although when Gregory's union plans fall through he decides to marry Mureth anyway. What Employer Luth's prophetic dream meant, Author Lawrence does not say, lets readers decide for themselves whether his employes are hot on his heels because they are angry at him, or whether he merely thinks so because he is the head man in a general retreat.

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