THE BACKSIDE OF WASHINGTON

The Backside of Washington is neither as ribald as its title suggests nor nearly as funny as its chapter-headings would lead one to hope. Dick West, who writes a column called ""The Lighter Side"" for United Press International, has rounded up almost every punned about our Capital City, vis-a-vis the parking problem, short-shorted tourists, Pentagon gobbledygook, the national debt, and ""the Jackie Kennedy look"". West obviously regards bureaucratic lugubriousness as a vast joke on the American public, but his satirical sallies congeal on the page and some of his comments are so true-to-life they're liable to make the taxpaying reader weep rather than laugh. There are scattered wry chuckles, but nary a good guffaw in the lot...it's all just too trite. Linecuts.