Soviet collective farmers are the heroes and heroines of the new’

Soviet novel, Heart and Soul.

BOOKS

Siberian farm setting
for new Soviet novel

most recent Stalin Prize
novel to be translated into
English, Elizar Maltsev’s Heart

and Soul (obtainable here at the

People’s Cooperative Bookstore,
337 West Pender, price $1.25), is
a love story, laid on a collective
warm in Siberia in the years just
before, during and after the war.
It is a love story in many
senses, for it deals not only with
the romantic love of several pairs
of young people, but aiso with the
- love of women for children, of
children for parents, of comrades
for each other, and most pro-
‘foundly with the love of men and
_ women for the work they do.
Like many recent Soviet novels,
Heart and Soul focuses attention
on the deep changes taking place
in Soviet women and the effect on
the men who love these women
but are not able entirely to ac-
cept the change. ee

Two other recent Soviet novels,
ivan Ivanovich and Harvest are
concerned with strikingly similar
material. =

In all three cases the love story
of the leading characters is in-
extricably twined with another
equally important story — that

of the woman and her job, her-

reaction to the challenge of the
new life around, her struggle to

deal with it as creatively as her

man comrade.

One looks in vain through con-
temporary U.S. literature for pas-
sages of real-intense excitement
about men at their work, much
less women, Only the mechanics
of war and sex draw from our
writers such enthusiastic atten-
tion to technical detail as Maltsev
lavishes on Grunya’s battle to
grow winter wheat on unplough-

. ed fields.

The suspense of Gunya’s first —

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visit to the wheat plot in spring
is as intense as any crucial scene
in her turbulent romance. Her
ultimate success is written with a
sense of heady excitement that
reminds one of no recent US.
writing, but very much of Galina
Nikolayeva’s description of Fros-
ya’s ride on the combine in the
last pages of Harvest.

aie as

“The story of Grunya is the
story of a woman who loves very
deeply, and twice loses, her hus-
band.

The first time is 24 hours after
their wedding, when war breaks
out and he is called immediately
to the front. A few months later
news is relayed to her of his
death.

Grunya throws herself furious-
ly into the work of the collective
to dull the pain of her loss. Swift-
ly the work sets up its own
dynamic. The shy young woman
is transformed into an agronom-
ist-heroine of labor without realiz-
ing what is happening to her. It
1s to this new Grunya that Rodion
‘returns,

After the first raptures of this
‘second “wedding feast” the hus-
band and wife begin to discover
differences, latent always. but ex-
aggerated by what has happened
in the years of separation.

Grunya is shocked by her hus-
band’s. Personal competitiveness,
and he is unbearably challenged
by her achievements, They drift
apart and finally Separate.

_ The emotional shock is crush-
‘ing for Grunya, but even more
m, as it comes
near to driving him out of his
home community altogether, de-
stroying his ability to act as part
of a group. _
__His halt on the’ brink of the
abyss and his slow struggle back
to integration in the farm and
Grunya’s love are not the most
successful portions of the boook;
they lack the simple convincing-
-ness of the best of Maltsev’s writ-
ing and seem at times artificially
contrived. But it is most inter-
esting .to see in what direction
the writer believes the solution
must be found.

Of more restricted canvas than
Harvest, this novel does not at-
tempt to draw as many. characters
or deal with as many problems of
Soviet life. But what it sets out
to do, it does well. It is warm
with real people, who feel passions
and fight real battles, and it is a
great tonic after too much litera-
ure of the local graveyard. —

—FRANCES SMITH

’ tion.

Charlie Chaplin says he works
for ‘glorious era of peace’ |
Martin Nexoe |
dies at 84 —

tC was Peace Prize Day for

Charlie Chaplin in Lausanne
last Friday — and the famous
British film actor had some force-
ful remarks to make on peace.
Dr. R. L. M. Synge, 1952 Nobel
Prize winner, handed over the in-
ternational award—worth $15,000
—on: behalf of the World Peace
Council. Then Charlie attacked
the H-bomb users.

Dr. Synge, vice-president of the
British Peace Committee, had
gone to Chaplin’s home at Vevey,
near here, to make the presenta-
tion. In the garden of the villa
the four Chaplin children played
as the ceremony took place.

Chaplin intends to use the
money for the work of peace and
friendship in London, Vienna and
Geneva.

When he met Dr. Synge, the
great comedian made it clear just
where he stands. ’

“The desire for peace is uni-
versal,” he said. ‘To promulgate
the demand for peace, whether
from East or West, I firmly be-
lieve is a step in the right direc-
Therefore I am honored
and very. happy to receive this
award. ;

* “T do not assume to know the
answers to the problems which
threaten peace, but this I do
know: that nations will never
solve them in an atmosphere of
hate or suspicion; nor will the
threat of dropping hydrogen
bombs solve them.

“The secret of manufacturing
these horror weapons will very
soon be common knowledge, and.
very soon all nations, big or small,
will have them.

“In this age of atomic science
nations must think of something
less old-fashioned and more con-
structive than violence to solve
their differences.

“The melancholy grooming of
people to the acceptance of hy-
drogen warfare, with all its at-
tendant horrors, is a crime against
the human spirit and has created
world infirmity.

“Tet us therefore absolve our-
selves of this miserable, cancer-
ous atmosphere.~ Let us try to
understand each other’s problems,

' for in modern warfare there is

no victory.

“Therefore let us have a re-
turn to that which is natural’ and
healthy in men, to the spirit of
good will which is the basis of
all inspiration, of all that is ‘crea-
tive, beautiful and noble in life.
é J

“Let us work toward that end,
toward a glorious era of peace in

_ which all nations will prosper.”

‘Hungarian artists
are keen sportsmen

House are keen sportsmen in
‘Hungary.

'A report in the newspaper
Magyar Nemzet says their water
polo team is taking part in the
national championship this year

and two of their teams hold high -

positions in the national billiards
championship.

Their football team finished sec-
ond in a Budapest cup competi-
tion. There is a keen angling
section, and they are planning
athletics, gymnastics, basket ball
and fencing sections.

VEN artists of the State Opera

‘New UN stamp

“The Hands of Hope” for peace
form the ‘central theme of this
new stamp issued by the United
Nations. aes

HE world-famous Danish auth
or, Martin Andersen Nex0e,
who has lived in East Germany
for the past three years, died 1
Dresden last week at the. age °
84. . od
Acknowledged ‘as one of the .
greatest writers of modern times,
Nexoe was awarded a Nation
Prize by President Wilhelm

_Pieck of the Democratic Germa®

Republic three years ago. :
A member of the Danish Com

-munist party, he was arrested by

the Gestapo during the German —
occupation of Denmark in: 1
and put in a concentration camP-

Some of his novels, such 2
Pelle the Conqueror, and In Gos
Country, have been translate
into many languages.

French censor bans

anti-Communist film —

REMARK in the “American

Commentary” column of the
current issue of the Cinema, Brit-
ish trade journal, offers ground
for inquiry.

“Hollywood has always had
trouble with overseas censors,”
it. says, “particularly in India,
Indonesia and Ireland.

“But here’s a new switch. The
French censor has banned 20th
Century-Fox’s Hell and High
Water on account of its anti-Com-
munist theme. :

“The French explained to Fox
that they had recently banned a
couple of Soviet entries with

anti-U.S. themes, and that they
thought it only fair to mete out
the same treatment to both
sides.”

Well, it’s good news that
French censors have found a2)

reason for banning a U.S. ant

Communist film.
We'd rather. have no censors
but liberty to make our own judg
ments. on t
Nevertheless, one can vd
chuckle over the shock this
cision must have given the
wood propagandists. —WAL

TER -
HOLMES. :

Vancouver to have

Now Vancouver is to stage a
huge sidewalk display of art —
nearly half a mile of paintings —
during the British Empire Games,
when thousands of visitors from
all parts of Canada, the United
States and Commonwealth -coun-
tries will be in the city.

The exhibition is being spons-
ored by ‘the British Columbia
Region of the Canadian Federa-
tion of Artists and opens July 24.
The paintings will be hung on

the new post office, bounde
Georgia, Dunsmuir, Homer #
Hamilton.

The exhibition is open t0 all

free

choose. Size of paintings, met uae
of hanging, subject matter are
tirely up to the artists.

Individual artists, profession?

and amateur, and art groups
the city are being asked to ide-
every effort to make the big 5
walk show a success. aay
Entry forms may be obtainé
from Bob Hume at Vancouver +*,

Gallery.. wae

ASPIRIN: seems to be as good

as the expensive “wonder”
drug Cortisone in treating
Patients in the early stages of
rheumatoid arthritis, medical
experts report.

A joint committee of the
medical Research Council and
the Nuffield Foundation reach-
ed their conclusion — printed
in the British Medical Journal
after a controlled experiement

Aspirin rivals Cortisone

in which 30 patients got Corti.
sone and 31 aspirin for one
year.

Those who got Cortisone
swung from “excessive” a”
“inappropriate” cheerfulnes>
during treatment to depres
sion when off treatment.

But the aspirin _ patients
changed moods more in keeP”
ing with their symptoms. .

) ae

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 11, 1954 — pace §

44

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