The one other slip that
George Ponderevo has made is a slight yielding to the temptation of
caricature, out of place in a realistic book. Thus he names a half-penny
paper, "The Daily Decorator," and a journalistic peer, "Lord Boom." Yet
the few lines in which he hints at the tactics and the psychology of his
Lord Boom are masterly. So much for the narrator, whose "I" writes the
book. I assume that Wells purposely left these matters uncorrected, as
being essential to the completeness of George's self-revelation.
* * * * *
I do not think that any novelist ever more audaciously tried, or failed
with more honour, to render in the limits of one book the enormous and
confusing complexity of a nation's racial existence. The measure of
success attained is marvellous. Complete success was, of course,
impossible. But, in the terrific rout, Ponderevo never touches a problem
save to grip it firmly. He leaves nothing alone, and everything is
handled--handled! His fine detachment, and his sublime common sense, never
desert him in the hour when he judges. Naturally his chief weapon in the
collision is just common sense; it is at the impact of mere common sense
that the current system crumbles. It is simply unanswerable common sense
which will infuriate those who do not like the book.
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