CRANE EDEN

Novelist, biographer and critic, Conrad now writes this piddling account of the obnoxious activities of Crane Eden, world-famous debauchee and television idol. Eden is fifty and seems remarkably well preserved, in spite of his habituation to several pints of vodka a day, morphine, and the continual provocation of his senses and feelings. Eden's constant companions are his secretary Danny, a devoted fag, and Tishy, his foul-mouthed teen-aged mistress who satisfies the terrible desire he entertains for his own 14 year old daughter. We join the threesome on an island in the Caribbean, on Location for a ""pilot film"" which if successful will save Eden from bankruptcy. The film never comes off, and Eden, after several sanguinary episodes, dies a lurid death. Toward the end, Conrad seems sympathetic and sentimental towards his hero and might even suggest that he is a direct descendant of the fin dandy-decadent; this hardly seems justified.