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673 
mficant young man much her inferior, but a member of a rich old 
family of merchants. However, she soon manages to push her husband 
gently aside and take matters into her own capable hands. At times 
she gets into difficulties, but with the help of the good Lord she man¬ 
ages to get on. The assistance and advice of her fellowmen mean 
little or nothing to her; she gets her help from the Lord. In the even¬ 
ing when the room is quiet and the night-light burns dimly, it seems 
to her as if he conies to her bedside. Then the evening prayer becomes 
a little chat. “One nice thing about the Lord is that He listens—and 
knows and understands and He does not make any objections. 
The Lord has his secret plans, and they are, of course, carried out. 
But a poor soul can at least express her opinion without being inter- 
lupted. Besides, it Aoes no harm to give Him a little information 
He is omniscient, to be sure, but it is possible to look at things from 
different points of view.” 
Life does not spaie Grandma; sorrows and cares of various 
kinds come to Her. She is hard and thick-skinned, but she never gives 
up* The Lord is her source of strength. The conversation between 
Grandma and the Lord is the best thing in the book, and Hjalmar 
Beigman has reproduced it with the gentle, sympathetic irony of 
genuine humor. 
Hjalmai Beigman s composition is often involved, capricious, and 
improbable, but he has the ability to create characters. And ju his 
gallery of picturesque personages “Grandma” occupies one of the 
places of honor. 
Maj Hirdman is a young debutante who has attracted consid¬ 
erable attention because of her novel Anna Holberg (Norstedt & 
Soner, 1921). The book is a description of the proletariat. This is a 
rich field and it has been treated in a consistent and spirited manner. 
It describes the development and life-struggle of young Anna Hol¬ 
berg. Poverty forces her out into the world at an early age. At nine¬ 
teen she has landed m the industrial world, where g’roups of factory 
buildings are outlined against the evening sky, like twisted giant hands 
whose fingers are thrust up toward heaven in a gesture of hatred. It is 
here that she fii st comes in contact with socialism, which becomes her 
gospel. She is “saved.” She becomes one of the most zealous mem¬ 
bers of the socialist club. But from time to time a feeling of doubt as 
to the genuineness of all these dreams and phrases begins to creep 
into her mind. Next we hear of the complete failure of the big strike, 
which makes a deep impression on her. She gets a position in Stock¬ 
holm and is accepted in the communist intelligentsia circles. Here she 
rather thoughtlessly enters into relations with a handsome young com¬ 
munist, who hastily deserts her when he learns that she is to have a 
child. The child, however, becomes the turning point in Anna Hol- 
berg’s life. It opens up a new world to her, and when it dies after a 
