MASQUE OF HONOR

This one is being presented as a potential big sell although the joint authorship indicates the aliterary nature of the enterprise. It's about a Negro infantry captain, David Walsh, who is wrongly handpicked for glory by a hungry headline hunter. A columnist misreports and misrepresents an episode for which he will receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. What actually happened in Vietnam was that Walsh, and his men, instead of keeping some 1000 ""gooks"" at bay were running away even faster (this is one of those novels where they tie on every tag -- wops, hunkies, white niggers, etc.) When Walsh is brought back to the States as a ""living black hero"" to be exploited by everyone, he makes the necessary disclaimers to his wife, the public, and finally his son. One rather resents the intellectual-ethical pigmentation which presents any good, clean-living citizen doing the decent thing as an ""extraordinary human being."" And there are other objectionable aspects which may not have anything to do with its marketplaceability. They usually don't. Mr. Pearl, author of Stockade, 1965; The Crucifixion of Pete McCabe, 1966, contributes two if not three of the four heavy thumbs.