THE BUILD-UP

A pleasant family novel which, like the recent short story collection, Make Light of It, is set on New Jersey soil and imbued with a kindly concern for man and his life, this book by our famous doctor friend carries us on a gentle ambling through the early years of the century. When the Stechers come to Riverdale, Gurlie, highspirited and proud of her Viking ancestry, determines to rise in the town; she skillfully leads civic affairs and her husband, a hardworking German who prospers with his New York City printing firm and provides increasingly well. Meanwhile the two daughters, to whom the author devotes the same fond attention he does to the mother,- Lottie, a gifted pianist, and Flossie,- grow and find love. With the accidental death of the young son and the onset of the first World War, Joe, at his lowest ebb, begins to build Gurlie the house of her dreams while anti-German feeling and his family losses press upon him. Characters and a way of life are appreciatively drawn in this gentle, realistic book, in which themes and intensity of telling have little space... Enjoyable for those who like literate, quiet entertainment given by one who seems to delight in mankind and who invites the reader to rest happily while observing his people.