MR. PREEN'S SALON

Oliver Preen thought that the approach of old age and the departure of two wives was sufficient to ensure security in the matrimonal market. But the women of the French Quarter bohemian set thought otherwise. And this is the story of the matrimonal marry-go-round, as Lily, sex-ridden divorce, bet on adding Oliver to her successes, and Molly, torn between a secret passion for Oliver and an absorption in the novel-under-way, battle to the finale for possession, with Lily winning the sweepstakes. Other phases of matrimony get an airing:- a phony Count annexes Milly's mother, while Milly and her insurance salesman Fred are absorbed in their own affairs; Lanny and Baby, two fairies, go in for full range of bickerings and jealousies; Clifford, loyal henchman who despairs of the infinite capacity for alcoholic beverages evidenced by Oliver's hangers-on, serves Oliver faithfully, but goes home nights to the wife of his bosom....All very studiedly naughty and gay- and (for this reader) cheap and for the most part dull reading. South Wind influence gone wrong. The one excuse is that Tallant is adding another facet to his New Orleans panorama, successfully launched with Mrs. Candy's Saturday Night continued in Angel in the Wardrobe, and now comes Mr. Preen's Salon.