E-text prepared by Al Haines
by
Author of "The Blower of Bubbles"
With Foreword by Lord Beaverbrook
McClelland & Stewart
Publishers ======== Toronto
Copyright, Canada, 1920
By McClelland & Stewart, Limited, Toronto
Mr. Baxter is my countryman, and, as a Canadian, I commend The PartsMen Play, not only for its literary vitality, but for the freshness ofoutlook with which the author handles Anglo-American susceptibilities.
A Canadian lives in a kind of half-way house between Britain and theUnited States. He understands Canada by right of birth; he cansympathise with the American spirit through the closest knowledge bornof contiguity; his history makes him understand Britain and the BritishEmpire. He is, therefore, a national interpreter between the twosundered portions of the race.
It is this rôle of interpreter that Mr. Baxter is destined to fill, arôle for which he is peculiarly suited, not only by temperament, but byreason of his experiences gained from his entrance into the world ofLondon journalism and English literature.
I do not know in what order the chapters of The Parts Men Play werewritten, but it seems to me that as Mr. Baxter gets to grip with therealities of his theme, he begins to lose a certain looseness of touchwhich marks his opening pages. If so, he is showing the power ofdevelopment, and to the artist this power is everything. The writerwho is without it is a mere static consciousness weaving words roundthe creatures of his own imagination. The man who has it possesses afuture, because he is open to the teaching of experience. And amongthe men with a future I number Mr. Baxter.
Throughout the book his pictures of life are certainly arresting—takenimpartially both in Great Britain and America. What could be betterthan some of his descriptions?
The speech of the American diplomat at a private dinner is the truestdefence and explanation of America's delay in coming into the war thatI remember to have read. The scene is set in the high light ofexcitement, and the rhetorical phrasing of the speech would do creditto a famous orator.
But I fear that I may be giving the impression that The Parts MenPlay is merely a piece of propagandist fiction—something from whichthe natural man shrinks back with suspicion. Nothing could be fartherfrom the truth. Mr. Baxter's strength lies in the rapid flow and sweepof his narrative. His characterisation is clear and firm in outline,but it is never pursued into those quicksands of minute analysis whichtoo often impede the stream of good story-telling.
I am glad that a Canadian novelist should have given us a book whichsupports the promise shown by the author in The Blower of Bubbles,and marks him out for a distinguished future.
If in the course of a novel of action he has something to teach hisBritish readers about the American temperament, and his American publicabout British mentality, so much the better.