BOOKS
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stories and cntlcism, explains his secret, why he is not a gif!nt, .why,
even when one admires him greatly, there is something baffling about
his career. The tone of these stories is restrained and controlled, but
ultimately, beneath the refined surface, one begins to notice Forster's
curious haughtiness. He reminds one not of an arrogant youth, but of
a dominating grandmother, safe in the assurance that her standards
are purer than those of the ruffians around her. At times one feels
Forster has failed to be as great as he might have been, not from the
lack of energy or bravado, but from the crafty workings of an exces–
sive and morbid pride which will not stoop to express itself in outright
megalomania. Instead he uses a double-edged, unique, aristocratic
modesty, actually meant to be triumphant, but which very strangely .
keeps this odd man at its mercy. These "tales" are good examples of
his divided nature. They have imagination, wit and irony; they are the
work of a deliberate artist, often brilliantly defiant in his fancifulness,
but in the end somehow apologetic, as though Forster were too quick
to tell us that the fashionable will reject him as, he says mockingly in one
story, "suitable for reading
in
the train."
Most of the stories in
J.
F. Powers' new volume
Prince of Darkness
are concerned either with the Catholic clergy or the oppression of the
Negro. The latter stories indicate a good ear for common speech and
an ardent devotion to the Negro's cause, but they suffer a bit from the
fact that this struggle has been extensively treated in our recent literature
which, since these evils still exist, must show the powerlessness of litera–
ture as propaganda. Of course, in the long run, say in a hundred yc:us,
there is always the possibility that writers will achieve a real revolution
in mass thinking about minorities; in the meantime, one suspect.s that
the people who read their books, even the far more commercial ones
than Mr. Powers', are just as devoted to freedom and decency as the
writers themselves and are in no further need of conviction. Needless
to say, the theme of oppression is entirely valid, but at the moment it
is viciously oppressed by literary conventions and waiting for a revolu–
tionary Negro or white man to set it free.
The Catholic stories are much better. They are witty and intel–
ligent and have the added interest of recreating the daily life of the
clergy, their feelings about their clothing, food, housekeepers, advance–
ment, automobiles, airplanes, and even insurance. From the stories I
gather that Mr. Powers is not a renegade Catholic but a Catholic re–
former. "Lions, Harts, Leaping Does" is extremely well written, but the
title story "Prince of Darkness" seems to me his most successful effort.
It
treats imaginatively the inner life of a priest who has n01 real calling,
who is in fact like a businessman, bored and yet ambitious, crude
though somewhat competent, jealous and still bitterly resigned. As
