THE LORENZO BUNCH

It's good Tarkington, in his lighter vein, and demonstrates his infallibility in getting under the skin of the middle class. The setting this time is a large middle Western city -- the characters, a group of intimate -- too intimate -- friends, whose proximity in an apartment house entitles the women to a claim on the knowledge of everything that goes on, on the surface, under the surface and beyond the surface. It's a friendly interest, in the main, but it can cause trouble, and the innocent enough ""affair"" of Ernie, who has his head turned by a rich woman who takes him up as a fad, and of his frivolous, cheap little wife and Ernie's ""girl friend's"" gigolo husband, ends in a grand fiasco and smash-up all round. Good human interest -- tragic-comedy -- and Tarkington knows his people. Should hit the rental library crowd on all cylinders -- and roll up substantial sales for the Tarkington fans.