Books: Brooklynese

HER KNIGHT COMES RIDING—John V. A. Weaver—Knopf ($2.50).

Setting down in slang the petty thought and emotion of lower-class America, John Weaver's verse, "In America" was a success. His success was partly due to simple spelling (Milt Gross's anagrams are too difficult), but also to his bright reflection of the city-dweller's curious combination of cynicism and sentimentality. The Brooklyn girl of his first novel has not enough of the cynicism to guard her against too much sentimentality, so she flounders miserably through a crush on the high school football hero, a passionate affair with a marine sergeant (1916), and a restful...