CRYBABY OF THE WESTERN WORLD

by John Leonard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 24, 1968

I am a mainliner on abstractions"" reveals the major character, Stanhope, at one point. It could hardly have escaped the reader's notice but if you dig energy, imagery, outrageous puns and a nutty sense of humor, you'll like this book: A Novel of Petit Guignol in Long Beach, California. ""Long Beach is a kind of strip-mining of the soul"" explains Stanhope Cronopios as he sets out to show the publisher's representative Gongor, the setting for Stanhope's creation ""Captain Happen."" Long Beach with its drive-in churches, high schools that ""look like filling stations,"" surfers and ""Surfrajets"" and John the ""ossified man"" and the local lotus ""Radio Free Long Beach"" busily ""programming emotional climates."" Stanhope is also suffering from an identity crisis so the search for the genesis of Captain Happen also becomes a search for his father and an attempt to come to terms with Long Beach, the prototype of spiritual nullity and neon landscaping. There's everything from espionage to protest (angry octogenarians) and even though ""I sometimes wonder how many people have choked on the tongue in your check,"" Crybaby has a dazzling wordsmanship.

Pub Date: Jan. 24, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION