Brooklynese

HER KNIGHT COMES RIDING--John V. A. Weaver--Knopf ($2.50).

Setting down in slang the petty thought and emotion of lower-class America, John Weaver's verse, "In America" was a success. His success was partly due to simple spelling (Milt Gross's anagrams are too difficult), but also to his bright reflection of the city-dweller's curious combination of cynicism and sentimentality. The Brooklyn girl of his first novel has not enough of the cynicism to guard her against too much sentimentality, so she flounders miserably through a crush on the high school football hero, a passionate affair with a marine sergeant (1916), and a restful flirtation with a traveled gentleman, until finally she contracts a commonplace marriage with the silent man who had loved her all along. Adventures with football star, hearty marine and grey-haired oldster fell drably short of the tales of knights and ladies, her childhood favorites. But, after all, the lady, though golden-haired, was a stenographer. Author Weaver* still writes New Yorkese correctly, effectively. But he pieces it out with stilted paragraphs of unlikely philosophy and extraneous sophisticated opinion.

* His wife is Actress Peggy Wood of The Clinging Vine (musical show), Merchant of Venice (Portia), and Candida fame. Since becoming Mrs. John V. A. Weaver she has burst into print (Saturday Evening Post) with advice to would-be actors.