Books: Get the Angle Yet?

THE VISION OF RED O’SHEA (48 pp.)—Russell Janney—Coward-McCann ($1.50).

Russell Janney is an old and successful hand at reducing religious feeling to bathos ; his slushy novel, The Miracle of the Bells (TIME, Sept. 16, 1946), sold 750,000 copies. His doggerel Vision of Red O’Shea may not do as well, but it has a distinction of its own: not since Edgar Guest lit his Harbor Lights of Home and Robert Service thumped through Songs of a Sourdough has a versifier shown such loving absorption in platitude and meticulous attention to cliché.

Bartender Red O’Shea’s vision comes after Gangster Scar shoots a dreamy rival for the love of a moll named Lu. As Lu holds the dying rival in her arms, Red sees

That Shrine where the Madonna sits,

and holds Christ crucified

In Her two arms—that sweet, sad Face

above the Guy who died . . .

Scar repents his way straight to the electric chair. Later, he repents some more by coming from another world (not clear whether heaven or hell) with 14 subordinate mobsters to protect Lu, who is now an Army nurse on the battlefield. Somewhat taken aback by this rash of miracles, Red O’Shea admits

I don’t quite get the angle yet. Maybe it was a lark

This goofy thing called Life can spring.

Maybe it have the spark,

The spark of what this Life Gag’s for—

the Why we live—and die.

Some things Red is sure about. Author Janney passes them on:

“Life ain’t no rose-bed flower.”

“You don’t survive no tommy-gun what pumps you full of lead.”

“Death is a pal.”