Fun and Forget

JAVA-JAVA--Byron Steel--Knopf ($2.50).

"The bronze horses on St. Mark's, however, winked knowingly among themselves, and the winged lion on the column smiled a sophisticated Venetian smile." For Eric, magnificent blond, had just glided his plane on to the Grand Canal, and turned amorous attention to his passenger. $37,500 was the fare she had paid him to transport her, Catherine, decadent American college girl, from the Eiffel Tower to Java, and Philip, her (chief) lover. Meanwhile Eric served very nicely as more than pilot. It became necessary to draw the curtains of the airship, but the Italian populace continued to applaud hilariously, their gondolas created a serious traffic jam, and "the horses on St. Mark's, not content with winking, were stamping and frisking their tails; the winged lion was heard to laugh lecherously." Once in the jungles of Java, Catherine forgot her Norseman, and succumbed with Philip to the seductive musky sweetness of orchids and passion flower.

Gay, ridiculous, wise, exasperating, fantastic, Java-Java's satiric truths mingle with its pack of lies. Sober readers will be shocked, contemptuous, bored; others will enjoy the fun and then forget it. The youthful author also wrote O Rare Ben Jonson.