He talks and he talks -- may Classic Comics take him -- but he talks. Yet the groggy reader is usually jarred into ordering...

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YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER

He talks and he talks -- may Classic Comics take him -- but he talks. Yet the groggy reader is usually jarred into ordering more coffee and reading on. Take, for example, Kitman's efforts to secure for his backyard (and the pursuit of peace) an ABM for Leonia, New Jersey. Lobbying and Pentagon approaches are-always laborious, yet the activities of the ""Just-A-Minuteman"" and a visit to Herman Kahn (""a fat Groucho Marx with a 400 I.Q."") stimulate further inquiry. Then there are electric possibilities like becoming ""the Tishman of the sliverworld"" when it is proposed that Kitman build the world's narrowest skyscraper on his 2' 3/8"" X 100.9' city alley. (A problem explored earlier by Bob and Ray.) Kitman roams freely through TV and publishing and although displaying a tendency to turn back to a gloomy contemplation of Jackie Susann. There are comments on ""colored TV"" with the lovely ""so-called Negress"" Miss Carroll as a starting point; Kitman laws (""Pure drivel tends to drive off the screen ordinary drivel""); portraits (Pat Nixon, in a TV appearance ""looked like Bonnie would have looked like if she hadn't married Clyde""). And there's the hint that accomplished ""talent scouts"" were responsible for the Vice President. You can't judge a book by its coverage -- still -- there's matter in the chatter if a modicum of method.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Weybright & Talley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1969

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