THE ASIATICS

Gordon Sinclair's Footloose in India is the closest parallel -- with a suggestion of the imaginative flights of a Richard Halliburton thrown in. The ""feel"" of the book is not fiction at all, but hair breadth personal adventure stuff. Perhaps that is the impression the author wishes to convey -- a modernization of the picareque novel formula. In any case, it is the fantastic story of a young American, virtually penniless, but a good cager, who cares not whether he rides on his fascination for women or his fascination for men, so long as he rides. Sometimes fresh adventure winds up in a Turkish prison -- sometimes, hairbreadth escape from Russian fanaticism, sometimes exile on the charge of being a spy; now the pet of an aging spinster, now of a fawning Russian, now of a gluttonous maharajah. A mad book -- but good escape. And permeating it all, the sound, the sight, and forever the smells of Asia and Asiatics. Written in a breezy, vivid, casual style.