Easy Reading

THE BIG SHOW--McCready Huston--Scribner ($2). With the edge of his desire for adventurous living dulled by environment, Branch Diversey found himself, at the outset of the War, an onlooker at life. Brought up by an overcareful mother, he had not followed his gay and reckless stepfather into the professional life of the circus. Instead he had made himself a rich lawyer by marrying the daughter of a political boss. Unsatisfied in his desire to live thoroughly and without compromise, he leaves his wife and goes to another girl in whom he has seen the possibility of a deeper relationship, tells her that he will enlist and come back to her after the War. Thus he fulfills the essential vigor of his character, ceases to be a spectator, joins the big show. Author McCready has the ability to tell a swift story swiftly, to make events and people assume spasmodic vitality. His writing is not polished but it is workmanlike, easy to read.