+ Nature 106:625 Ja 13 ’21 580w + N Y P L New Tech Bks p35 Ap ’20 80w
PARK, JOHN EDGAR. Bad results of good habits and other lapses. *$1.50 (4½c) Houghton 814
20–7286
The contents of these essays all hinge on the distinction the author makes between two kinds of goodness; respectable goodness and adventurous goodness. It is the difference between a mummy and a living body. For the ten commandments he would substitute the golden rule, as including them all, and his parting words to the reader are: “Don’t be solemn. Don’t be staid and conventional. Get off your pedestal. Fool a little. Love much.” A partial list of the contents are: The disadvantages of being good; The folly of getting there; The world, the flesh, and the devil; What I would not that I do; Lies; The grammar of life; The secret of the moral training of children.
+ Booklist 16:306 Je ’20
“Altogether they are a very readable lot, and if most of them leave a moral truth behind, the reader will forget the preachment for the enjoying of his ideas.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 S 25 ’20 240w + Cleveland p85 S ’20 30w
“Mr Park’s relaxations avoid the too facile generalization which is the usual fault of the type. Yet they breathe a certain serene remoteness from dust and heat. In contrast with the good gigantic smile of Mark Twain, it lacks what closet wit must always lack, an earthly and living contact with men and women.”
+ − Nation 111:224 Ag 21 ’20 250w N Y Times p15 O 10 ’20 80w
“It is bright, gay, and logically weak, with the useful knack of arraying a commonplace in the garb of a paradox.”