Fitzgerald Figments

TAPS AT REVEILLE--F. Scott Fitzgerald --Scribner ($2.50).

Author Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald's title implies that the world his latest stories tell about is cockeyed, arsy-versy. A literary double-lifer, he has concentrated his serious ambition on his few novels, written his many magazine stories simply to make money. Though critics sniff at them, say they sound like thorns crackling under a pot, readers forgive him the pot for the sake of the crackling. Of this collection of 18 stories, all are reprinted from magazines.

The first eight stories form a series of panels on the jazz-age adolescent, of both sexes--Author Fitzgerald's version of the Tom Sawyer-Penrod legend. Some others:

P:A monolog whose narrator, a light lady, tells of her disappointing experience in running into the busy Battle of Chancellorsville instead of the unengaged arms of free-spending soldiers.

P:A Southern belle, beleaguered by Yankee admirers from a nearby training camp, loses her heart to an ex-streetcar-conductor, recovers from her infatuation when she sees him in mufti.

P:A Hollywood writer, befriended by a temperamental director and his lovely actress-wife, becomes a half-willing participant in their queer make-believe that ends in tragedy.

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