THE HERBLOCK BOOK

Many years of drawing barbed political cartoons for the Washington Post precede this volume of caustic comment and caricatures by their author, who sounds off on capital activities all the way from Senator McCarran shaving his beard to smoking in the China lobby. If preponderantly derogatory, the approach is unpretentious, basically healthy. Funny similies and comparisons that Mr. Block's agile mind have produced for his drawings, come to his writing too, as he rambles on about congressional operations, red tape and bait, the ""side-show"" hearings, fear smears, Stalin worries, foreign policy, the Korean war and the Asia game- stopping now and then to spot a point-making case like the concerned A.M.A.'s wish to control medical legislation or the Pauley-Ickes' feud that ruffled the Truman cabinet. These are all off the cuff remarks, written with no specific organization under subject headings and, admittedly, out of the author's own head. The ample supply of cartoons runs along with the text, and the humor light and flashy, sparks some pretty appropriate, liberally donated, and non-partisan criticism. For people who like Herb Block and politics- here's amusement to dip into from time to time.