Customer Reviews

One More Spring

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Today this gentle work of fiction is as forgotten as a shadow.Robert Nathan chronicles the lives of homeless, jobless souls who have taken up residence in Central Park in the midst of the Great Depression.These are people " whose fate was of interest to no one but themselves.Even the poets did not write about them,because the poets also were poor,and their nature made them indignant.They no longer wished to write poetry;on the contrary,they wished to fight;they threw themselves into the coal wars in the south,and were sent home with broken heads,like the heroes of antiquity".
This novel radiates charm; in 1935 it was produced as a feature film.

A modern fable set in NYC during the darkest days of the Depression. A shopkeeper who has lost everything, a violinist, and a prostitute with a heart of gold end up living in a toolshed in Central Park. They scrape by, befriend an older couple, and save a ruined banker from suicide. Being a fable, Nathan is more interested in his "moral" than depicting reality, and the message here is a familiar one for Nathan: Love is all one needs to survive. The ending reflects this: the woman and shopkeeper go off to North Carolina to live off the land; it's a bit hard to swallow, but it's a pleasant thought, anyway.

If you like any of Robert Nathan's books, you will love this one. It is one of his best. It is so good that a movie "One More Spring" was made in 1935 starring Janet Gaynor.