--WITH FRECKLES

by John Haase ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 29, 1963

A light-hearted tale featuring a beat Mr. Deeds, a passel of poets, officialdom thwarted, a juvenile computer, and other Wodehousian pot pourri, whimsical as all get out. When Professor Leaf, ruddy of face and red of beard, teacher of English at the University, father of five children and master of a retired ferryboat permanently moored in San Francisco Bay, discovers that his eight-year-old son Erasmus, who worships Brigitte Bardot, is a human computer, he suspects trouble. Sure enough, officials, singly and in groups, begin piling over the side of the boat and are royally dismissed by Leaf. However, in spite of help from his permanent guests, the poets, a retired Episcopalian clergyman in a neighboring ferryboat, and Erasmus' psychiatrist (Leaf had decided that Erasmus' talent was a definite infirmity interfering with the pursuit of the French horn and the poetic life), Professor Leaf loses his job, and things look bleak until it is discovered that the ferryboat is seaworthy. A letter from Miss Bardot, a Nobel Prize and a psychiatric discovery supply a jolly conclusion. An airy farce with one joke and many repetitious speeches. Too cute for most.

Pub Date: May 29, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1963

Categories: FICTION