STRIBLING

The novel of the initiation from childhood into cold adult reality isn't what it was in the old days -- what with fragging Army officers, desertion, a sweaty affair with a lady singer suspiciously reminiscent of the great lamented Janis, plus various law-evading episodes showing what a really smart soldier learns from the military. Unlike his namesake, however, Leander Stribling drowns neither in sorrow for the lady nor himself in an eighteen month Leavenworth stretch where he somehow manages to retain his sanity for the outside world where lovers and kin are dying or dead; even the wild Wyoming land where he was born is full of hamburger stands and sleazy motels. This is a cheerful, sentimentally-tough, autobiographical-sounding novel about the old-fashioned virtues of strength, solitude, and (do you believe?) chastity and alcoholic temperance -- and who cares about credibility?