THE LION PIT

The publishers are putting advertising pressure behind this -- for no good reason that the reading of it reveals. Unless that the story could be summed up as all the scandal that's fit to titillate. It gives a running account of the sex lives of a huge cast of feebly drawn characters, connected in one way or another with the Carey Furnace Steel Company of Carey Furnace, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh. There is the president, vice president, publicity manager, various people in sales and advertising and in the office of the treasurer. While sex is a major preoccupation, the struggle for power is another, and a not unrelated one. The town is cross sectioned- after all the company is virtually the town. And the grand climax comes with a train wreck which causes a horrible fire in which blast furnaces explode, the good guys prove their worth, and the bad guys are conveniently killed. Not for anyone with a weak stomach -- nor any literary acumen.