M.H."" MEETS PRESIDENT HARDING

by Michael Zagst ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 29, 1987

Second-novelist Zagst (The Greening of Thurmond Leaner, 1986) now offers a somniferous farce about an attempt to kidnap Warren G. Harding. It's 1923. Gentle Sidney Halverton works for a New Jersey tent-making company and so impresses Thomas Edison with his expertise that the old boy invites him along on one of his famous picnic jaunts into the West Virginia wilderness--other guests will be Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and President Harding himself. Before leaving, however, the gullible Sidney is smitten by a tall, beautiful, exotic stranger who calls herself Margarete Fabry and who insinuates herself along on the trip. A mildly promising beginning, perhaps, but once the group gathers in camp, Zagst proceeds to rob his fabulous foursome of all reality by presenting them as stereotyped historical cutouts: Edison babbling visionary ideas; Ford spewing anti-Semiticism and doing chin-ups; Firestone tagging along like a puppy (""Henry, I'm telling you it's balloon tires from here out""); and Harding waddling about exuding hearty political cheer. Things do not improve when Margarete turns out to be the fabled spy Mata Hari; having somehow escaped a French firing squad, she is now working for an imprisoned bootlegger with a grudge against the Harding Administration. When she kidnaps Warren and heads for Canada, Sidney and his celebrated pals give chase, and the novel sinks into hackneyed melodrama with a Perils of Pauline finish. A tired plot, clichÉd characters, and exceptionally dreary prose (whose rhythms are monotonous but not lulling, like a dripping faucet). History--in Zagst's hands, anyway--is indeed bunk.

Pub Date: April 29, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Donald Fine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION