RICH IS BETTER

The stock of Science Associates, Inc. shoots up at a fantastic rate and Walter Fleming finds himself suddenly a man of affluence. Except for one lapse of infidelity, Walter has changed not at all on becoming a rich man, his wife continues to buy her dresses at Loehmann's ""the Las Vegas of fashion, a stimulant for frayed female nerves, a feast for the depressed ego, a salon of Miltown in which rising tempers can be miraculously soothed by the discovery of a brand-new, genuine Norman-Norell...just arrived, marked down to $28.90"". He remains the target of constant reproof from his bachelor cousin Jerry ""a nimble broken-field runner across the sensuous byways of nonsuburban life"". Walter's basic resistance to the slough of upper-middle vices, his refusal to play lackey to financier Leonard Finch because he still remembers Finch as ""screwey Lennie"", his bunk-mate at camp Ho-Ho-Ka, are responsible for his financial undoing. But neither he nor his wife Marjorie liked the game very much anyhow. Comparisons struck between Wilk and Max Shulman by reader, reviewer, and publisher are inevitable. Certainly, the former is well up to the literary analogy. He's an extremely funny man, effortless in his wit and satirical insight. And the targets, of course, are suburbia, resorts, status-seekers, office protocol, the army, and dutiful infidelity. His urbanity, ease, and dialogistic expertise are virtually unequaled.