THE LITTLE LEXICON OF LOVE

Mr. Russell offers the perfect example of a writer who is word drunk. That's not a bad thing for a reliable hack humorist to be, except when he gets a bit word bloated, as he does when he gives in to the compulsion to list long strings of synonymous vulgarisms and euphemisms for sexual activity and equipment. These add to the faint aura of Eau de Barbershop that Clings to even his best efforts. Mr. Russell's forte is the lampoon and with a whole series of very good ones he brings down that most often wounded of beasts, the Hollywood spectacular. His best essay is on Horatio Alger re-visited and his sharpest is the one in which he strips Shirley MacLaine of her public relations cover by documenting Just where some of her ""wildly original conversation"" came from. Mr. Russell has excellent taste in puns and altogether the collection adds up to robustious browsing for Playboy readers.