FRACASSO

by Voldemar Lestienne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 22, 1974

Think of The Three Musketeers, Rabelais, The Dirty Dozen (the publishers would also throw in M*A*S*H though Lestienne deals in too many grotesqueries for that), orchestrated with all the tastefulness you so admired in Mel Brooks' The Producers (""Springtime for Hitler and Germany""), and you pretty much have the picture presented in this sequel to Furioso. Now the Free French commandos -- young Maupertus, gentle giant Castagne, the Jew Belletoise, the outcast Breval -- are pitted against the upper cadre of the Third Reich -- Himmler, Goering, Goebbels and Hitler himself. Maupertus, aide-de-camp to de Gaulle (who must consult with his medium before any undertaking) is parachuted into a wildly boobytrapped forest in Germany. His mission: to rescue his friends from the clutches of the evil genius Heydrich who has assembled a huge cast of doubles of the world's political leaders. It's Lestienne's zany notion that certain actual incidents of the war can be more easily explained if you give ""credit"" to the ""double."" The plot, as they say, defies description. Here attitude is all, announced by Maupertus' orderly: "". . .death, like life, is junk. There are no bargains but you don't want to be cheated too badly."" Accept that and the book offers its own kind of crazy logic. High marks for imagination though.

Pub Date: Jan. 22, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION