Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

KENT, Mona [224] pp. Popular Library 1950 6 1/2" x 4 1/8" ELL begins life on an Indi-ana farm, a realistic, hard-driven girl determined to get ahead in the world. She is flat-tered when the elegant Gerald Thornton sees something in her, but marriage to Gerald is not what she had thought it would be. Gerald is not man enough for her and in their cheap Chicago rooms, embittered and feeling cheated, she decides to be the man of the family. This, as Mona Kent develops it relentlessly, is the clue to Dell. It explains her success as a writer of soap-opera and why she gave Gerald credit until she sees herself becoming overshadowed by a mere man. Miss Kent knows her back-ground thoroughly and recon-structs what seems to be the au-thentic workings behind the scenes. But this is, above all, Dell's story and whether or not she is typical of the qualifica-tions needed to get to the top of her profession, she is full-blooded as a creation.