GUIDE TO. GooD READING

‘We Fished All Night’ is honest

novel of contemporary America

IN HIS new novel, We Fished
All Night, William Motley exem-
plifies those qualities of cour-
age, honesty of perception, and
democratic spirit which made
Dreiser and Whitman the tru-
est. literary spokesmen of the
United States. _

Motley’s theme is the post-
war disillusionment of those
who fought for all the free-
doms, big and small, personal
and national, without which
_ they could not continue to live
in dignity and peace. His peo-

ple represent a wide range —.-

workingmen, union organizers,
poets, politicians, members of
all parties and of no party,
militants, pacifists, cymics.

The Second World War, the
novelist tells us, awakened two
currents in the American peo-
ple. One was an. immense
striving for a decent life in
which exploitation was at least
eased to the bearable point, in
which art and poetry and
theatre could flourish, in which
equality marked tthe relations
between different national

groups, in which there was an_

assured peace. The other loos-
ed a savageness in which all
that was decent was trampled
on, in which neither. the lives
of children nor the dignity of
women is sacred and inviolable.

The persons of We Fished All
Night are driven by either of
_these two currents, and very
often by both, so that their
_Struggles for freedom are not
unmarred by the pressure to
surrender to debasement, cow-

THE PROTAGONIST is Chet
Kosinski, a young Polish- Amer-
ican who quickly becomes Don
Lockwood to escape the restric-
‘tions created by anglo-Saxon-
mania. A messenger boy for
the Haines mail-order house, he
knows that as Kosinski the way
is barred to any substantial up-
grading. Similarly, as the star
of an amateur theatre com-
pany, he feels that Lockwood
is a “preferable’’ name. Seek-
ing to “belong,” he cannot. even
permit ‘himself to tell the truth
to Sue Carroll, a typist at °
Haines as well as leader of ‘the
little-theatre group with whom
he is in love.

He is one of a group among
whom we find Jim Norris, a
union organizer, Aaron Levin,

a poet, and a number of others,’

most of them employed at
‘Haines, most of them search-
ing for the good life they ‘had
been promised in their child-
hood.

Kosinski, Norris, and Levin
are drafted for ‘tthe Second
World War, and they ‘return
with their particularly personal
wounds. Kosinki has lost a
leg; Levin has lost his ‘sanity;
in Norris there has awakened
a terrible lust and restlessness.

Kosinski, ‘by a chance, meet-
ing with a Democratic chief-
tain, becomes a carefully nur-
tured candidate for a minor
political office. His platform
is one calculated to satisfy the
needs of the ‘majority; decent
housing, an end to discrimina-
tion, protection of civil rights.
Kosinski (Lockwood) professes

ardice and betrayal.

ol cos fast!

THE STORY OF BILL BENNETT,
eae SOCIALIST JOURNALIST

By Tom McEwen
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‘

not to know that this is pure
demagoguery. His campaign,
with its buying of votes, arrests,
beatings, ‘bribery, is carefully
delineated.

We Fished All Night, ‘hhow-
ever, is not simply the story
of disillusionment.
taneously the story of those

‘“ who refuse to become cynical

or intimidated. In ‘contrast to
the corrupt political campaign,
is the fight waged by the hand-
ful of Progressive party mem-
bers.

x x x

BUT THE WRITER is not so
much concerned with the exter-
nal differences as he is with
the profound difference in the
motives of ‘the two opposing
camps. His ‘treatment of Pro-
gressives, of honest liberals,
and of Communists is the ‘treat-
ment of human beings who feel
that they ‘have a great stake in
life, that this stake is bound
up with peace and the rights
of all peoples. They do not per-
mit themselves to become divid-

ed. Whether they are going:

through a strike at Haines or
a political campaign, they
choose to stand together.

Few American novels have
so skilfully integrated politics
and persons, and avoided so
well the tendency to produce
either plaster saint or evil in-
carnate.,

A word too must be said of
Motley’s prose. It is at once
gentle and angry, tender and
forceful, plainspoken and lyri-
cal.

_ When one considers the anti-
humanist literery harvest of
these times, We Fished “All
Night (obtainable in Vancouver
at the People’s ‘Cooperative
Bookstore, 337 West ‘Pender,
price $4.50) becomes ‘an even
more distinguished accomplish-
ment. The author is conscious
of the literary wind he is buck-
ing, for in ‘the writings of the
insane Levin one finds the tor-
tured raving of Pound and

Eliot. 4
It is at this point, strangely

enough, that Motley also, I ‘be-
lieve, shows a lapse of judg-
ment. While it is true that one
may find among the Jewish
people fascists and anti-Semites,
the fact is that the great ma-
jority of Jews abhor ‘bot
fortunately, ‘the only major
Jewish character in the novel

is Levin. Whereas the variety

and vitality of non-Jews is
handled expertly, the lack of
such variety and vitality among
his few Jewish characters be-
comes a distortion.

This fault is repeated again
with Jim Norris, the ardent un-
ionist, who returns from the

war with a crazed lust with

’

work which is on the whole a

which he struggles.

Such faults ‘tend to muddy
the novel, for they provide a
linkage with the very anti-hu-
manist,
the novel as a whole defies.

These are shortcomings in a

splendid accomplishment. When
those who, in life and art, are
one examines ‘the roster of

foremost in defending culture

and peace, it becomes apparent
that Negro American are the
most militant and vigorous. It

is therefore not an accident .

that a Negro. writer .enriches
us with this novel of hope and
courage.—DAVID ALMAN,

It is simul-,

Un- |

mystic stream which ~

KARL MARX

Opposed brief
‘Capital’ edition

A LETTER from Kar] Marx, ~

protesting at the idea of an ab-
breviated edition of Capleal;
his great four-volume examin-
ation of the capitalist system,
was sold recently at Sothebvy’s
auction rooms in London.

It fell to a dealer, Heinrich
Eisemann, for $616, after _be-
ing briskly bid up to $588 by
three strangers, who left im-
mediately after the sale.

The letter, in a tiny, crabbed
hand, with much underlining,
was written to an unknown
correspondent who ‘had contri-
buted an article on “The Inter-
national Workmen’s Associa-
tion” to a journal.

In‘ this article the author ‘had
said that an abbreviated trans-
lation of Capital was ‘to appear
shortly—and provoked this let-

ter repudiating any such edi-.

tion.

Marx wrote: “I have reserved
the right of translation and
there exists a copyright treaty
between Germany and England.
I shall, ‘therefore, certainly: stop
the circulation of any such
epitome not beforehand author-
ised by me.”

He went on to explain that
“even the revision of the not-
abbreviated French translation
published at Paris has given
me more trouble than the writ-
ing of the whole book iin French
would have done.

“Supposing that you know
the translator, and being anxi-
ous to avoid the nuisance of
law proceedings, I have taken
the liberty to write to you Upon
this subject.”

Marx then put the unknown
writer straight on a number of
facts concerning the First In-
ternational, including its cor-
rect title
Workingmen’s Association.
Eisemann said, after ‘he ac-
quired the letter, that he had
simply bought it for stock,
and met; on sige of anyone,

ZENITH CAFE

105 E. Hastings Street
VANCOUVER, B.C.

UNION HOUSE

BETHUNE MEMORIAL

Sponsor contest
for novel, play

IN THE name of the late Dr.
Norman Bethune, Canadian
Communist hero and to mark
30 years of the Communist
movement in Canada, a national
contest for a Canadian novel
and a Canadian play ‘has been”
announced by the national cul-
tural commission of the Labor
Progressive pearly:

A Bethune Memorial Com
mittee has been set up to spon:
sor the contest which is for
“the best short novel on some
aspect of Canadian life and
struggle’ and ‘the best play.”

Prize awards are publication
and performance. All manu
scripts must be in the hands
of the Bethune Memorial Com-
mittee by December 31, 1952.

_ Judges will be announced at 4
later date.

The contest is designed to
stimulate creative writing about
aspects of the lives and strug-
gles of the Canadian people |
today or at any period in the
country’s three and a half cen
turies of history. It is open to
all writers, French or English-
speaking.

The Bethune Memorial Com-
mittee has drawn up ‘the follow-
ing guide rules for contestants:

The Bethune Memorial Com:
mittee offers two prizes; a) for
the best short novel on some
aspect of Canadian life and
struggle; 'b) for the best play-

1—The novels and plays 0
be written in either French oF
English.

2—The prizes to include pubs
lication or production.

3—Three judges to be ap:
pointed by the committee. |

4—MSS to reach the com
mittee by December 31, 1952."

5—The novel to be ‘between
40,000 and 50,000 words. ;

6—The play to be suitable
for production on a medium
sized stage in halls such as are —
available to the progressive —
theatre movement, !

7—All copyright to be the —
prcperty of the authors.

8—Manuscripts of novels and
plays must be typed, double oF
triple spaced.

9—Address all cantonal
and communications to:
Bethune Memorial Committee
Room 331, 73 Adelaide Street

West, Toronto, Ont. ;
mere

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_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 29, 1952 > PAGE 8