CAPTAIN BLACKMAN

A rather interesting fable of the Black Man in the American Army. Captain Abraham Blackman (get it?) sacrifices a leg to save several ""brothers"" in his company; in his delirium the moment is relived in obsessive fashion: as a freeman at Lexington and Bunker Hill; under Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans; through the Mexican and Civil and Spanish-American and World Wars and Korea, everywhere the black man fought in this usually segregated army with valor and distinction, and often with more than his share of casualties. In between the historical ""reincarnations"" is the Vietnam gruel -- the medical evacuation, amputation, the Medal of Honor farce -- played against a creeping apocalyptic vision as the blacks take over the SACs in a peace zap in the not-so-distant future. The writing moves with such surrealistic verve and seeming spontaneity that the inattentive reader may miss the satirical critique of white hypocrisy which underlines an essentially acerbic novel.