THE HORN OF LIFE

by Gertrude Atherton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 9, 1942

It creaks, this would-be modern novel in which a gently born daughter of old San Francisco tries to remake the city she loves, to save it from sliding into the discard and allowing Los Angeles to take first place. It is a story of the years between the wars. Lynn had won all honors in her service overseas; she didn't want to come home but her father's rapid decline, his death, and the discovery that his fortune was gone and his wife a dipsomaniac, combined to bring her back to make a new life on the fringe of the old world. Teaching school held no future, she felt after a try; she was groping for her role, she tried to society again, she tried a de luxe restaurant (she was successful at both but still dissatisfied). She turned down various suitors (they seemed easy to get), and at the end, surveying the field of conquest, she decided to cast her lot with the rough diamond whose edges she had successfully smoothed. Just what all this contributed to San Francisco's rescue seems vague. And both story and characters date rather pathetically, and very unconvincingly.

Pub Date: Oct. 9, 1942

ISBN: 0548069433

Page Count: -

Publisher: Appleton-Century

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1942

Categories: FICTION