Japery

RIPENESS IS ALL--Eric Linklater-- Farrar & Rinehart ($2.50).

Readers who think the modern novel is sex-ridden might find Ripeness Is All a case in point. But they would be hard put to it to raise a respectable objection to this solemnly hilarious japery. Even those who do not like English novels because they consider the English an annoyingly asinine race will find Author Linklater's soothing. Like many a sourly smiling Scotsman, he considers the Sassenachs a comic spectacle, fit subject for a farce.

Major John Gander, richest and most respected citizen of Lammiter. was a crotchety old bachelor but he had his share of relatives. And at his death they all looked forward rather than back. The will was a great shock to all of them: it left the bulk of his estate to the one who should have become the parent of the most legitimate children in a limited time. As only two of the heirs-apparent were married, and only one of them had a child, the race promised to be interesting. Katherine, the childless wife, went rushing off to meet her husband, homing from India; twins were common in his family. Arthur's wife put him on a nourishing diet, made him take unaccustomed exercise. Stephen had a horror feminae ever since an impassioned girl had bitten his ear in broad daylight in a Florentine cafe, but he nearly fell an unwilling prey to a legacy-stalking female. Hilary was too settled a spinster to change her ways.

Arthur's wife triumphantly produced another child, only to be tied by Katherine, whose faith was rewarded by twins. But then long-lost George, black sheep of the family, came back from India with a large and dusky family, and it looked as if the prize were his. How the Vicar got into the running, and what a preposterous old man Major Gander's father turned out to have been, let readers discover.

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