RURAL FREE DELIVERY

These recollections of a rural mailman somehow do not ring true. They have a Mr. Dooleyish tang to them, as though a literate intrepreneur had put words in the vernacular into the mouth of an R F D factotum of 40 years standing. Aside from this -- to me -- shortcoming of the book, the text has the homely philosophy and humor of a man who lives close to the open road, who knows people, and who has a sense of incident and character. But the book reads as a collection of topical essays, not a continued autobiography.