Chapter L: S. G

_Breath of Life._ By ARTHUR TUCKERMAN. (G. P. Putnam’s Sons.)

We learn from the jacket (that most entertaining part of so many books; for there pure imagination soars into the literary empyrian—) that Mr Tuckerman is “a new American writer of twenty-five”. Warned by that designation to expect one of the precocious works of cynical sophistication of the terrible “younger school”, we cannot be anything but agreeably surprised when that turns out to be an erroneous supposition. In its early chapters “Breath of Life” does not treat of the collegiate youth who sits out dances with worldly-wise and unsurpriseable débutantes, and gets drunk in fashionable cafés; but that sort of thing has been done so much in “first novels” of late that the aspect is negligible. The main part of the story is frankly given over to that type which calls for gallant action, and gay, not too-analytically-treated romance; as such it makes for easy, delightful reading.

Everett Gail has left college—“New Haven”—after two lazy, profitless years, to see whether business cannot end his restlessness and give purpose to his existence. He soon finds that office work makes him an automaton, and the incidental round of parties bores him. He disgraces himself before the one girl he cares at all about by getting drunk, and it is while in this condition that he climbs aboard a ship bound for the Caribbean. The harsh realities of the work on shipboard end when he dives overboard in the harbor of Santa Palina, and there he finds the life of excitement which he craves. Days of adventurous intrigue and revolutionary plots follow, with the necessary love-element in the person of an insurgent leader’s charming daughter. In the end he saves an astonishing number of American Marines’ lives, receives the thanks of his government,—and sails back home.

“Breath of Life” is not a profound book; it propounds no unsolvable problems; and there are certain banalities and traces of a still immature style evident. These are the natural signs of a new author’s development. But it is the sort of book that you will enjoy reading. Mr. Tuckerman’s characterizations are rather good; his sense of scene is excellent. For those of us who desire an occasional respite from the rigors of Yale’s iron-clad curriculum, “Breath of Life” offers pleasant relaxation.