DON'T STOP THE CARNIVAL

Herman Wouk is beachcombing and this is his first comedy. (He was a gag writer some years ago.) The title is from a calypso song; the scene is a pleasantly suntanned Caribbean island; and the story is one big planter's punch, only not so heady, about a hotel venture-fiasco as undertaken by New Yorker Norman Paperman who buys the Gull Reef Club for five thousand dollars. From then on Norman has lots of troubles: ants; an earthquake; plumbing; local help; and his own penchant for Iris although he really loves his wife Henny and is a fond father to a very nubile Hazel. The novel (actually it's a vaudeville routine) ends with a swinging (viz. brawling) cookout and some further disorderly conduct— an outbreak of VD, a shooting, and Iris' death. Although there are occasional serious moments, namely Wouk polemicizing about the Jews, still his dialogue is very automated and his sense of humor puzzling: people sign letters "Glub Glub" or then there's a real twister like "Jesus, Norman, you taste like a pretzel. Go take your shower." ... But then, as someone says to Henny—- "Well? Has the island magic got you, too. Or do you have good sense?" We have some sense, and we recognize the hard (cash) truth of the matter— even though reviewers jump, readers grab, and this one, in addition to the Wouk name, has the Book-of-the-Month Club accolade. And just as Youngblood Hawke is being blazoned on every billboard "A woman could feel him across a room" we recognize the vibrations here. They clink.