THE PROMOTERS

A new novel has not perhaps the frayed glamor of probably Longstreet's most successful book, but again disintegration lends momentum to a story of battered, tattered lives. These include Alex Catline, called the Judge, a self-made man with a lust for life, now wealthy on the proceeds from a Virile Vitamin Cola, and working toward the control of a railroad; Joel, his sales manager, an alcoholic trying to lick the monkey on his back; Esme, his publicity assistant, who is ready to give Joel more than tender loving care-but whom he rejects. In the months here, as the Judge engages in a double-jointed deal to take over the Panhandle, Southern and Great Gulf, he is an easy mark for a frame in Washington- and the death of his daughter leaves him a broken man; Joel, after a long lost weekend, realizes that it must be his last and acknowledges the one chance left- with Esme; and the Judge, who has broken with them both, makes his gallant exit...More of a man's book-this has a rude, crude vigor to which the vernacular- and it's effective- contributes.