ov Pener2."—By Nosh Elete feerge Allen and Unwin, Ltd.
Plight of Porctz" is the story of lower-middle class Jewish life in England in which the author, by hhis stubborn tenacity to the Psychology of that race, proves de. Bnitely that he not only knows his own people but he is also prepared to sacrifice them to his ruthless pen. The tale is sordid, tawdry, as are the characters in' the story, and as they are in reality. It is not mat appeal, but it is an appeal of pity rather than of sympathy Peretz, as the hero, moves within a circle of family relationships which have been ingrained into his blood and his subconscious mind for generations. Naturally intelligent he realizes the utter "hopelessness and sickening shame of his family, his home, his future, his fate, yet he ig powerless to walk out of the situation, as one of.another race might well have done. With hap-ess ying at his finger tips and for the taking he dismisses it without any' great struggle and subsides into a lethargic resignation. So, with the rest of his family, each of which the author deals with briefly but caustically. Ray only. the youngest sister, walks out of the dsiastfel meshes of her childhood into a marriage with a Gentile, being of an anarchistic temperament and mentality. The story is not a pretty one, but it is vellwritten, interesting, and sc-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.