Depression

NOBODY STARVES--Catharine Brody-- Longmans, Green ($2).* No proletarian, no Communist, nobody has yet written a first-class proletarian novel. Nearest so far is John Dos Passos' The 42nd Parallel. Nobody Starves starts out as though it might ring a new bull's-eye but it turns out to be just another ricochet. Though proletarian authors and capitalist critics would never agree on what makes a good novel, even a proletarian would want a novel to be more than a case history. Nobody Starves is a painstaking, truthful-sounding case history.

Molly's case was no different from thousands of others. Young, pretty, fairly intelligent, she went from factory to factory as the economic spirit drove her. Outside of work hours she lived. When Bill got a good job in Detroit and sent for her. Molly was pleased to go, pleased to be a married woman and not work in a factory any more. But boom times went quickly, jobs got scarce, finally nonexistent. Bill and Molly quarreled, patched it up. Optimistic Molly thought things would pick up soon, but Bill knew better. He thought & thought till he had decided what to do. When Molly was asleep he shot her. After that he meant to turn on the gas. but he kept putting it off till the police got him.

*Published Oct. 5.

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