Farewell to Something

NEVER ASK THE END--Isabel Paterson --Morrow ($2.50).

Isabel Paterson writes book reviews for the Manhattan Herald Tribune, is principally noted for her weekly columns of literary chatter, "Turns With a Book-worm." In spare moments she writes novels, of which Never Ask the End is the latest and will apparently be the most successful (it is the Literary Guild choice for January). Many a reader who admires Authoress Paterson's flip, common-sensical newspaper way will shake a puzzled head over Never Ask the End.

Though her tale is tangled, the plot of the story is simple enough. Two girlhood friends. Marta and Pauline, not yet apparently fat but obviously fortyish, have for-gathered in Paris. Russ, an old pal, a U. S. businessman stationed in Antwerp, squires them through Belgium, hopes to join them for a few days in England. But business keeps him in Antwerp till Pauline's boat has sailed, so he keeps the date with Marta alone. They have a mildly amorous affair, with no strings attached, and part, perhaps forever. All the time, however, they are really in love with different people, figures out of the past, some of whom they share.

As Marta, Pauline and Russ move about on their gentle junkets they reminisce constantly, sometimes aloud but more often, more fully, to themselves. Gradually tortuously, the anxious reader discovers their histories. All have come from poor beginnings to comparative success. All of them have been unhappily married. All of them are enough wiser than they were to be able to philosophize about it. And at the end Marta goes back to her comic strip, Russ to his job and the doctor's sentence hanging over him, Pauline to the thought of her dead children and the possibility of once again leaning on a broken reed, a man.

Written with care, humor and flashes of satirical shrewdness. Never Ask the End may scare away skimming readers by its slow and mazy manner. To serious readers, its seriousness and sly competence should appeal.

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