HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON

This is racily well written and in the mood of the movie The Apartment. Connie Gorian is a divorcee with a small daughter and her own code of ethics, which includes going to bed, ""not promiscuously but often."" Her penchant for pregnancy confuses everyone's life but her own. She likes it. The thought of it nearly unhinges she aging Matt Hatfield, the publicly respectable foundation philanthropoid, who believes the child to be his. (It was conceived with the help of the equally married Kenyon.) Goaded by the frantic Matt and her worried ex-in-laws, Connie submits to upper-income abortion. (This isn't standard sordid. It's ""garbage removal"" by a committee operating under Hippocratic hypocrisy.) Connie dominates a stage crowded with her off beat friends, family and animals-- all unforgettably realized in her narration. The contortions of ""honesty"" to which the gustatory Connie drives her married playmates makes for acid comment on a shaky double standard doing a triple take. The dialogue is shockingly sharp with humor and insight and it all winds up with Connie pregnant by Sam again -- sans ring, sans Back Street complex-- and sans any great message.