MOTHER IS A COUNTRY

Feeling morose? blue? black and blue? put upon by all these put-ons? Didn't you get the point? Was it a joke? Or doesn't it just bear repetition? What's wrong with John Scudley? Who knows, who cares. He's tried to commit suicide seven times in the last five years (he's thirty-five) and at one point here he immures himself in the meat locker of the supermarket where he worked, before he was fired. But then he has some things to live for--a bosomy mistress who teaches English and is called Marya Poum. She dreams of famous men, sleeps with inconspicuous ones, and even tries to tempt a priest. Without itemizing this any further, since it is absurd and/or incoherent, you've got the bit including some psychedealing tripping and if you add it all up together it spells Mother. Or, in her words, as ""kooky as a crippled caterpillar."" The three deceases with which the book finally terminates can hardly be considered untimely.