CROSS-COUNTRY CHAOS

Here are the waystations on The First Annual Summer Enrichment Tour taken by a dozen California highschool students under the incompetent direction of English teacher, Miss Andorra Appleby, and history teacher, Mr. Richard ""Dickie-Boy"" Hobbs. At Yellowstone, the teachers allow the class genius to taunt the park ranger into a tantrum; in Illinois, it takes the National Guard to get the group away from a lunatic fringe super-patriotic guerrilla troop out on maneuvers; in Indiana, after a display of bad manners and contempt for the law when stopped for doing 75 in a 35 m.p.h. zone, they are allowed to drive on to N.Y. There, they take up the cause of Boris Bulganov, a Russian boy stowaway seeking asylum in the U.S. This is accomplished by making fools of some F.B.I. men. Professional comedians have said that the fastest way to a laugh is through the subtle attack on authority figures. Mr. Olson is not subtle and the comic values of the novel reflect the chaos promised in the title.