Eden is the post-Valentino Hollywood of the late '20's (not the sweeter long- ago of this writer's earlier Lancet and...

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GANDAL IN EDEN

Eden is the post-Valentino Hollywood of the late '20's (not the sweeter long- ago of this writer's earlier Lancet and Prisoner in Paradise) and this is a strident, smutslinging fictional retread of that former cause celebre, the Fatty Arbuckle case. Fatty, here yclept The Feeb, hasn't changed much: he's still the sniggering joker who forcibly rapes a would-have-been starlet and her death, presumed by abortion, proves to have been otherwise- ice is the blunt instrument. Mark D'Andor, a quondam successful lawyer, now on the juice, is asked to handle the case by mogul Pentlove who is determined to protect his film property. From Mark's own memories of Muffin, the forlorn, featherheaded girl who deserved a better life and death, to the trial with all its clinical clinkers, this re-tells a shoddy story. But even with the grafting of some of the high-low spots of Anatomy, Carpetbaggers, Runyon (the names- the humor- the gutter-al argot) one would suspect a more successful hybridization. The publishers expect it to sizzle and will exploit the possibility; it may only sputter.

Pub Date: June 21, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1963

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