Novel That’S

[?]Ormal

I his novel about the West Indies, he Cross and the Drum,” by Hugh Cave, also comes nearer to being a ‘mal novel than most of the ers in this month’s collection. its setting, an isolated French speaking island in the Carib bean; and in its theme, the con t between Christian mission and followers of vodun, it produces iation enough on the more usual me. tut it is, in essence, a story in ich you can concentrate on what ikely to happen to this and that racter instead of having to grope und in literary mists while the ter uses you and his novel merely express the writhings of his own stic soul. or that much, at least, we thank , Mr. Cave.

Man with Mission his is in no sense a religious el. arry Clinton was a young man ti a mission rather than a sionary in the accepted sense of term. He had little patience with old, more orthodox members of mission church and no doubt, hey had Patrol Officers and As ant District Officers in the West ies, as they do in New Guinea, author would have found it just :onvenient to make Barry in that ge. e thought of the native people ais people in that way, and not brands to be plucked from the tiing. s well as the intertwined stories he leading characters, and plenty iction, the portrayal of this seg it of West Indian life is ex snt. Cave is a resident of Haiti is a recognised authority on ibbean background—a fact that obvious from this, his second el.

Superstitious

he people, long in touch with lisation, are yet steeped in their -old superstitions and a very ;hy way of life that would, ight old Leander Mitchell whom ry relieved, provide untold ptations for the young mis ery. nly that week, Mitchell recalled, had been waylaid by a girl who iped naked from a stream as he >ed, tried to drag him into the ies and demanded that he should her a white baby, oor Pere Mitchell’s 72-year-old es melted at the thought and held no high hopes that Barry Id be able to tread the path of itude—although as things turned Barry seemed to manage alright his department.

He Cross And The Drum. Pub

d by Werner Laurie Ltd. Australian , 20/.)