Swedish Bread

OUR DAILY BREAD--Gosta Larsson-- Vanguard ($2.50).

Swede Gosta Larsson has been living in the U. S. long enough (eleven years) to 'write his first novel in English and to announce it as the first volume of a trilogy. Gentler in tone than most proletarian novels (perhaps because its scene is patient Sweden), it hints at a rougher sequel. To many a reader who likes highly-seasoned stories, Our Daily Bread will seem insipid fare, but for those who can do without salt it will provide an honest mouthful.

Peter Hammar was an expert lacemaker, and both he and his wife Hanna worked as hard as they could, but there was no margin of safety in the wages they earned for their growing family. As soon as Erland was old enough to leave school he went to work too, but then Hanna found she was going to have another baby. Other unremarkable misfortunes followed: Peter got blood-poisoning, their furniture was attached for taxes, a general strike made even honest workmen scabs. Their story ends in the midst of the strike, with nothing to lighten the horizon but a possible emigration to the U. S.

Author Larsson's care to write objectively has made his story a little toe matter-of-fact, his people a little too typical. But, as is often the case in such chronicles, the minor characters are worth the price of admission.

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