eaclef—Mr. er's particular type of American humour
will not, of course,- appeal to - everyone.- Indeed, there are 'many readers who find American slang as difficult as if foreign language. The most amusing parts of How to Write Short -Stories are the preface and the parodied "puffs," to which we are all accustomed from publishers. The preface, indeed, is the prescription with which Mr. Lardner equips his readers -for the task before them, and few things are funnier than his description, 'written in plain English, of " How to begin, or as we professionals would say, How to commence," The advertisement of " Harmony " with its -quotation from the 'literary editor of the United" Cigar Stores Premium Catalogue is also decidedly amusing. " The love story, half earthly, half spiritual, of a beautiful snare drummer and a hospital interne. . . . It explains what radio is and how it works." -But the actual stories in this book are very difficult to follow. 'Gullible's Travels, however, with its description of the :middle-class social climber, is quite easy reading, and the pictureS of the author and his wife, when they go to Palm Beach in order to make useful friends, are almost too poignantly depicted. The disappointment of " the missus " is so bitter that the reader cannot but sympathize, while at the end the apotheosis of their common-place friends, Mr. and Mrs. Hatch, puts the coping-stone on her disappointment. A very clever and amusing book.
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