The Boy From Maine

HOBY HADLEY, the Boy from Maine whom life moves in a mysterious way to transform from a yokel to a

master of ceremonies in a night club, is now thirty years old. And all his life he has loved Rosalie Hastings, of Boston and Marblehead, a beautiful girl of wealth, sophisticated, spoiled, and selfish, but irresistibly charming. She, however, marries others, and he marries a brat of genius named Bonnie Roberts, from his home town. Her genius runs to stage impersonation. All three marriages —Rosalie’s two and his one — are loveless; but the unloved are conveniently removed by suicide or divorce and Hoby and Rosalie are united in the end. This is the outline of a novel, written from the surface of a clever mind, well calculated to catch readers who find night life in the big city romantic. The cleverness shows best in the portraits of a fat, jovial entertainer named Ruby Mallory, who has a big heart and knows how to talk the language of gobs, and of Bonnie, a more original creation, who is so improbable as to seem convincing. Anyway, the hometown boy makes good — or does he? it.

R.M.G.