Adam & Eve

ADAM & EVE--John Erskine--Bobbs-Merrill ($2.50). The simplicity of Author Erskine's formula is so evident that definition is unnecessary. What escapes definition is this: why should talk that would be only mildly witty coming from the mouths of imaginary characters be continuously entertaining when imagined as spouting from mythical Helen of Troy, legendary Galahad or biblical Eve? Here is the triangle of Eve, Lilith, and poor old Adam, who gets tossed up and down in the web of their attractions like a fresh--man in a blanket. First Lilith gets him, then Eve, then Lilith, then Eve. (Then he gets a son. The gaieties of Author Erskine's dialog which can be so easily minimized by an understanding of his easy tricks remain as insidious as ever; and now as he points out once more the original sophistication of woman and the enduring naivete of the male, he can be called shallow or specious, but he cannot be called dull.