ARTHUR'S LAST STAND

by Alan Coren ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 1979

With the Sioux feeling their muscle just a year after Little Bighorn, and with compulsively spiffy Major Oliver Spoongurgle more concerned about new wallpaper and clean fingernails than about drilling and warfare, our old friend Arthur the Kid rides up to Fort Moccasin to deliver the Major's new goat, which was ordered for a mascot. But Spoongurgle can't possibly march behind such a moldy fleabag, and consequently can't ride to war at all--until orders from the general give him no choice and he rides off distraught (""we'll get filthy!""), leaving behind Arthur, his goat, and three kitchen workers too unpresentable to march. The three quake in fear of attack, but Arthur mobilizes them resourcefully, and when a Sioux army does show up, Arthur uses his ventriloquist's talent to convince Chief Cloud-That-Dances that the goat-god wants him to make peace with the white man. That's it--the Old West spoof at its simplest, with a few laughs for those who can go along with a joke on the ""superstitious"" Indians as well as the officers.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION