GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Dyson Carter’s novel
new maturity in Canadian writing

THE PUBLICATION of Dyson
Carter’s novel Tomorrow Is
With Us (Progress Books, To-
ronto, $1), is a landmark in the
history of Canadian literature.
It undoubtedly marks a new
level in the maturity of progres-
sive writing in Canada. It must
also be made, to open a new
phase in which writers , who
speak for peace and socialism
come forward as the leading in-
terpreters of ‘Canadian society
and its people.

The central character. of Car-
ter's novel is Allen Baird, a
scientist. He invents an appar-
atus for the study and treat-
ment of arthritis, but he can
interest no corporation or insti-
tution in the capitalist world in
its development. A friend shows
him an article on Soviet medi-
cal research in this field. Baird
tries to find out if ‘his invention
can be sent to the Soviet Union
and used there, and in doing
so, he comes into contact with
a leader of the Communist
party, a university student in
the peace movement, and a uni-
versity professor who once sup-
ported the cause of friendship
with the USSR. :

A big business public relations
man on the make frames Baird
and the others as a spy ring
sending secret information to
Russia. Several others are im-
plicated. The ambitious universi-
ty professor breaks down under
the pressure of the trumped-up

-investigation and makes a false

confession. With the help of sup-
porters outside the rest fight back.
They exose the frame-up and win

-release on bail.

The novel closes here, with the
forces of.peace having brought the
warmakers to a temporary stand-
still. What the outcome of the
trial will be we do not learn. But
we do know that the people are be-
ing mobilized to defend peace and
their freedom, and that eventually
they will win. In the various char-
acters, and particularly in Alan
Baird, we see how the people
grow in strength and understand-
ing in such struggle.

* *
As a novel Tomorrow Is With
Us is outstanding in its use of plot.
The story moves at a fast pace,

characters are skilfully introduced
and the tension is maintained
throughout the story.

The plot itself is complex, far
more complex than the brief sum-
mary given above would indicate,
but it is always clear. It is pos-
sible for Carter to have such a
plot because he is not just telling
the conventional story of a tangle
in the lives of a limited group of
people. His story has the unity
of a social struggle, in which
people join because its outcome
affects their lives.

The public relations man sparks
the spy frame-up for money,
whiskey, and vanity. The mon-
opolist finances and directs it to
help smash the union in one of
his plants and maintain his pro-
fits, and to help promote a money--
saving, atomic war.

Some of the spy-plot’s victims
fight back because they simply
value decency and integrity. Trade
unionists take sides in the struggle
because they see or are fooled
about the effect of its outcome on
their union and living standards.
Others, such as the Communist
Kirby, give leadership because
they understand how each phase
of the present struggle builds or
weakens the peoples’ -movement
that will end war and liberate all
mankind.

Because the plot involves a great
deal of action according to social
understanding of the consequences
of actions, the characters are
more aware of their social motives
than in most novels. Bourgeois
novels usually avoid or muff the
socially conscious character who
understands and can explain pur-
poseful action.

On the whole Carter nandles
this problem well. His chief in-
strument is the use of dialogue
as a way of telling the story. He
has clearly an ear for the way
in which people put words. to-
gether. Here and there, however,
the conversations go on longer
than is necessary to make their
point. There is also some tend-
ency to conform to stereotypes, as
in the conversation of the tough
characters.

* * *

BECAUSE Tomorigow Is With
Us will certainly be a foundation
stone of progressive writing in

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“TELL THEM YOU SAW IT
IN THE TRIBUNE”

represents

Canada, it is important that we

understand its weaknesses as well
as its strength.

It seems to me that Carter is
over-impressed with the power of
advertising technique in writing.

_ Thus the two- opening chapters

read like something out of Col-
lier’s. The kind of technique that
the professional dope-writers use

_is one for making phony motives

and actions seem believable. Car-
ter has no need for it, for his
story is true and strong.

We can see this in the novel
itself, for once the story gets

“going, the slick writing largely

disappears, and the style becomes
popular’ in the true sense. It
draws its strength from the clarity
with which it speaks of important
things,

Another concession to the bour-
geois outlook is the character of
Alan Baird’s wife Cora, whose
part in the novel is largely pass-
ive.

Cora is the type of the “ideal
American woman,” half clothes-
horse, half domestic slave, all love
for one tin god, and totally use-
less, As a result, her role in the
story is not credible or significant.
It is not necessary for bourgeois
pressure and propaganda to make
her insane to turn her marriage
into a tragedy. All that is needed
is for her husband to become an
adult.

Carter leaves us with the im-
pression that the warmakers
broke up a relation between Cora
and Alan that was precious and
beautiful. We should be left with
the understanding that comrade-

‘ship-in work and struggle is the

enly sure foundation of love and
marriage. Fortunately the rela-
tions of some of the other charac-
ters present us with a stronger
and truer ideal.

My chief criticism of Tomorrow
Is With Us is the way in which it
neglects the national character of
the struggle in Canada for peace
and against the warmakers. It is
almost impossible to identify any
of the scenes or characters in the
novel as specifically Canadian. As
a result the characters lose some
of the concreteness that they
should take from growing up or
entering into Canadian life in a
definite way, :

Even more serious ig the fact
hat the betrayal of the interests
of the Canadian people by the
monopolists and their jackals is
not shown up as’ betrayal of the
national independence of Canada.
Neither is American imperialism
fully identified as the chief seurce
of the danger of war. Worst of
all, we are not given to under-
stand how strong a motive deep
Canadian patriotism is in the fight
for peace. Significantly there is
no indication at all of the special
part of French Canada in the
fight for peace. :

—

I hope no one will take these
criticisms as a denial of the
strength and value-of Dyson Car-
ter’s novel. In spite of its weak-
nesses it has in it the life that
comes from reflecting the most
vital struggle in the world, the
peoples’ struggle for peace, It
should and I believe it will be
widely read. In a Canadian liter-
ary scene devastated by the domi-
nant American influence and for
the most part rendered drear and
hopeless by the posturing and pre-
tensions of Canadian writers, To-
morrow Is With Us holds the
promise of the future. — DON
FRASER.

Gas

Premier Duplessis of Quebec opens the door to Yanbhee

culture.

(See news story on page 2.)

CAPSULE REVIEWS

‘King Solomon’s Mines’.
good only as spectacle

KING SOLOMON’S MINES

A magnificent spectacle of the
African wilds through which
Deborah Kerr and Stewart
Granger wander more or less
irrelevantly. If you ignore the
story you will enjoy the splen-
did shots of African wild life
and the scenes portraying the
native people, in particular the
dance otf the Watsutsi at the
conclusion.

* x *

DEPORTED :

Despite its authentic setting
(postwar Italy) this story of an
Italian-born. gangster deported
from the U.S. fails to convince.
A typical Hollywood ‘“documen-

‘tary,’ the people, the country-

side are real but the story is
hollow. Jeff ‘Chandler makes
the most of his role as the gang-
ster. Marta Toren is a decora-
tive but unbelievably do-gooding
countess.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
A gangster film notable for its
expose of circuit detectives. The

characterizations are excellent.

Sterling Hayden plays the part
of the strong-arm mug selected
by. cagey bank robbers to handle
the “juice’ and cover the get-
away. The film makes an at-
tempt to explain how the gang-.
ster got that way and reveals
the tie-in between police agents
and the aristocracy of the un-
derworld,

* * *

PANIC IN THE STREETS

Plague in New Orleans pro-
vides the theme for this docu-
mentary-type film which is, how-
ever, rendered less convincing
by the fact that there are prac-
tically no Negroes in it, despite
its setting. The picture is mar-
red by its chauvinistic treatment
of Chinese seamen,

LITERARY FUND SET UP

going to live while he writes.

ministry of adult education.

writing,
Fund,

worry.

picturesque Rakoczi Castle.

from the author’s fees.

No financial worries
for Hungarian writers

THE ASPIRING young writer in Hungary with something
to say and the talent to say it has no worry about how he is
The Hungarian people’s govern-
ment has established a literary fund administered through the
Association of Hungarian Writers under supervision of the

The fund makes advance payments to writers, poets and
literary translaters for their works to be published, and supports
beginning writers with scholarships.
provides for resort holidays to writers and their families and
for their medical care and provides opportunities for undisturbed
The widows of writers draw their pensions from the

The Fund enables the writers to work free from financial
On one hand, it makes advance payments on the
publication the writer is working on, and, on the other, it
enables the writer to study life in the factories, mines and in
the construction industry and to journey into the counry for
background material. The fund makes. it possible for a writer
for instance, to work for half a year in an industrial plant or
live in a producers’ cooperative, ;

Artists’ Homes are available to which the writers can retire
to write undisturbed. Such a home has been opened in Sarospa-
tak, one of the most beautiful regions of Hungary, in the
One of the goals of the literary
fund is to establish a large number of such homes. Writers pay
nothing for the journeys they make to collect material. Neither
does stay in the home cost anything and the sum is not deducted

%

It protects copyrights,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 26, 1951 — Page 10