Young Men in Love by Michael Arlen (1927)

Many people were eagerly awating this book on first publication. Arlen's previous novel The Green Hat had been the best selling novel of 1924, and there had been only short stories between. I think it caused disappointment in some circles, celebration in others - certainly it garnered attention as the 'long-awaited follow-up'. One of the main criticisms was his tendency to repetition of phrases for emphasis - always the case, but very markedly so here. Often I find it quite charming, and it lends the emphasis it claims. But there are some times where he does overdo it, or where the phrase is constructed less rhythmically, and the result is irritation. This is the story of a threesome of powerful men, their children, and the lovers the children take. It has the trademark Arlen charm and swing, with a Monopoly-board zeitgeist of twenties zing and brilliance. The critical response has clouded the fact that this book is, in many instances, an intelligent one. The author has a strong grip on the power of passion, the swings and roundabouts of motivation in relationships, and graces them with a sure sense of style. Something which had come out in the stories between his last novel and this one was a feeling of writer's block - they were redolent of a struggling imagination. There is very little of that here - it steams along, issuing a confident slipstream. Only in the ending is there a sense of quandary - it sums up in two pages a little too flatly. Savile, the writer lover of the daughter of one of the powerful men; Venetia, that reticent and yet ultimately open-hearted daughter; Raphael, the traumatised war-survivor son of one of the others; Ysabel, his gregarious American actress lover - these are the four whose elegance and sadness are at the centre, with the power and influence of the older generation invading and twisting their lives and loves.