VICTORY AMONG THE INSANE

Call it Halloween, 1961"" or Apocalypse, U.S.A.--an untidy, untrammeled allegory which jaywalks through all the violent knowns of modern life, even in Feeding Hills, New Hampshire, where this takes place for twenty years or more. It seems like more. Primarily in its postoffice where its postmaster Hugh Smith-Regen, as permanent an installation as Jim Farley, does not respect the sanctity of his office: he throws out draft notices, eats up the foodstuffs, and cashes other people's disability checks. He also lives with the obsessive memory of Jane Candle who had become the wife of another man and mother of (his? or half-brother Tony's?) Noral Farms, also a quite tasty item. Smith is in and out of sacks as well as mailbags--marries four times--consigns his last wife to steal a VW as he organizes a local Brigade which conducts its assorted acts of vigilance and/or vandalism all through these New Hampshire Green Mountains. In spite of Mr. Madison's satiric energy, his Victory's hardwon--a triumph of printed matter over mind requiring special handling.