THE MANY MANSIONS OF SAM PEEPLES

A fast-moving, sardonically amusing novel about a lovable but very harmful scoundrel, Sam Peeples, who thinks nothing of cutting down the half of a neighbor's tree that has had the bad luck to grow onto his property in just such a way that the tree lands squarely on the neighbor's roof. Peeples might not be the richest landlord in Kanecka City, Kansas, but he's surely the most ornery, offending respectable people with impertinent questions about their sex lives to ensure that nobody except twenty-five-year-old virgins or ex dope-dealing cons like Harris live in the collection of ramshackle buildings known as ""Peeples' Paradise,"" where some of the apartments have bathrooms, some kitchens, but few both. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Peeples' attempt (assisted by Harris, whom Peeples nearly takes over by dint of his forceful personality and non-stop monologue) to raise the $10,000 he needs to forestall the Bohunk Jews at the bank (to Peeples, anyone with money is a Jew) from repossessing his property on which they wish to construct their own set of aseptic but highly profitable apartments (complete with swimming pool and shopping center). It's energy, humor, and the petty thief against the Establishment thieves by the end of this almost apocalyptic novel, as Peeples sails his car off the bridge and into the stars, maybe.