THREE CHEERS FOR ME

This is, one supposes, a war story. Sherman once said, ""War is all Hell!"", but Mr. Jack apparently did not set out to write of the horrors of war, so much as to be cute. If such was his intent, his success was only partial. He most certainly does not create any feeling of horror. Neither is he cute. The ""Me"" of the title is one Bartholomew Bandy, native son of Canada and incompetent par excellence. He enlists in the infantry in 1916 and is shipped to France amid warnings to beware the evils of wine, woman and wet feet. He manages to botch up trench warfare: he is once sent on a reconnaissance mission to capture one of the enemy, he gets turned around in the dark, and he succeeds in capturing his own colonel -- naturally. He switches to the RAF. In the air he fares slightly better, thus prompting his fellow pilots to wish he would remain airborne indefinitely, as he invariably gets into trouble upon touching ground. Bandy tells his story in simulated P. G. Wodehouse fashion, injecting such ""humorous"" comments as ""...the train rushed headlong into the night at 5 mph"". It is difficult to muster up much of a cheer for either Mr. Bandy or his journal.