IN THEIR OWN IMAGE

Basso has deserted his Louisiana background for Aiken, South Carolina. Why must they all, sooner or later, delve into the cocktail-swigging, sensation-seeking, would-be-smart crowd, for their critical research into what is wrong with America? A disappointment, after Cinnamon Seed. Polo, horses, women and drinks seem the chief topics of conversation, and not very convincingly, at that. An undercurrent of intrigue, fortune hunting, boot licking and false standards forms the background for a story of a newly made millionaire, her daughter-in-law who annexes men as a habit, her daughter, who makes a get-a-way, to build her own life, and the onlooker, an outsider who helped her make her pile. A bit on the cheap side. And certainly not for conservatives.