Irish Jesuit Province

Gael over Glasgow by Edward ShielsReview by: F. MacM.The Irish Monthly, Vol. 65, No. 768 (Jun., 1937), p. 429Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514149 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 19:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Jesuit Province is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Monthly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:19:12 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOOK REVIEWS 429

the child mind enables her to understand and overcome the difficulties which the Gospels present to youthful readers. This is not a " lesson book " in the ordinary sense of the word, but a delightfully told story of life in a

Catholic household, in which the talks about St. John's Gospel take a natural place, and in which the background is not the least important part. The " children " are skilfully drawn with fidelity and humour in Lamp lighter's best style, and the illustrations, while not perhaps as attractive as those in the former books, are a pleasant addition to an extremely interesting volume.

C. M. K.

Gael Over Glasgow. By Edward Shiels. (Sheed and Ward. 7/6.) The finest things in this novel are the large picture it gives of the Clyde

bank, the shipyards and the factories, and the lively sketch of a character, Nickey Rooney. Plainly the novel was written with sincerity, out of much knowledge, and with passion; but the knowledge had not been selected and worked over into a unity, and the passion was not for the excellence of a literary form, but for the betterment of social conditions. In a word, the novel falls between the two stools of novel-writing and pamphleteering.

There is enough material in it for a whacking good novel. The best I can say of it is that it's only fair. Lengthy descriptions, however fine in themselves, are enemies to a novel's unity and life if they be not vital parts of the theme or movement or plot. Well-managed dialogue can give a scene

much more vividly. Mr. Shiels does not avoid lengthy descriptions or use dialogue sufficiently. Most of his descriptions of social conditions are too abstrac. Look at this paragraph: " They were a melancholy group that gathered round the office window. A pay-off was nothing unusual in this life, but now with this crisis facing Society, and unprecedented industrial stagnation, who could hope for work again? God knows!" But I repeat, the picture of the Clvdebank in the main is good and almost sustains interest.

F. MACM.

I Remember Maynooth. By Don Boyne. (London: Longmans, Green and Co. Pp. 132. Price 5/-.)

Fr. Edmund Lester, S.J. By Fr. Clement Tigar, S.J. (London: Long mans, Green and Co. Price 3/6.)

"There is a noticeable reserve in the attitude of the laity towards May niooth College. How many know the story of its foundation? How many are aware that it is the largest ecclesiastical college in the world? One

might sdely wager that the majority of sightseers who go to Maynooth are from abroad." When one comes face to face with the author's statement

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:19:12 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions