Books: All Held Hands

EVA’S APPLES — William Gerhardi — Duffield ($2.50).

Thinly disguised under the synonym Ottercove, Lord Newspaper-Magnate Beaverbrook appears in Gerhardi’s new book, avowedly “pure and unmixed, except for the obvious extravaganza.” But Beaver-brook’s life has been so rich in extravaganza that the fictitious is not always obvious. Ottercove rides in a Winged Chariot, a comfortable limousine that darts down London streets or rises quietly into the air far above traffic and turmoil. He promises Protegé Dickon (Gerhardi himself in disguise) his greatest evening paper as wedding present, but reneges. He begets a son of Eva, whom he marries to get the better of her other lovers. Eva who inherits her Russian mother’s charming promiscuity was accustomed to arrive penniless at some unfortunate town, take up her abode at the workhouse, but carouse nightly at cafe and dance hall. Eva once traveled from Ireland with nine Catholic priests; all went to the same London hotel; all went to the cinema; all held hands. “Nine Catholic priests, and you in the middle?”—”No, at one end. Father Michael and I holding hands, and all the other eight too in a chain. Very intriguing.”

So far, so maudlin good. But out of necessity perhaps to H. G. Wells to whom the book is dedicated, Author Gerhardi winds up his loose strands with a tiresome world destruction. Ottercove flies with Vernon Sprott (Arnold Bennett) toward the patch of earth that survives the end of the world, but disintegrates on the way. As Castor & Pollux the two men are immortalized by the glowing ends of their cigars. Ottercove’s unborn son and Eva and some of her lovers are chief survivors of the extravaganza.