LUTHER, MARK LEE. Presenting Jane McRae. il *$1.75 (1½c) Little
20–10734
When Jane McRae is first presented she is acting as waitress in her step-father’s hotel in a small “up-state” New York town. Here she comes in contact with Stuart Pendleton, a young civil engineer, and with Arthur Gault, a movie singer. With Stuart she falls in love, but refuses to marry him when she learns of his previous entanglement with another woman. Leaving unbearable conditions at home, she goes to New York to support herself. At the end of her resources, she again meets Arthur Gault, who is now a moving picture director. He gets her a small part in his picture and finally persuades her to marry him. She becomes more and more successful as an actress, but is not happy. She realizes that her marriage to Arthur was a mistake, but does not see the way out. But when the war comes and frees her from him, the manner of his death leaves her still with an unanswerable question. “It did not occur to her that she was free.”
“To tell the truth all this business of Jane and the engineer, from beginning to end, is unreal and commonplace. Jane herself is least credible and desirable whenever that young man is brought on the scene. Except his good looks and his fine phrases, there is nothing or next to nothing ‘to him.’ What ‘makes’ the book is its study of Jane in relation to the movie man.” H. W. Boynton
+ − Bookm 52:70 S ’20 650w
“On the whole, it is a quick-moving and interesting tale.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 7 ’20 180w
“Very long and not very interesting. Some of the motion-picture parts of the book are not unentertaining, while of the characters Arthur Gault is by all odds the best, at times becoming a real human being.”
+ − N Y Times 25:31 Jl 18 ’20 300w