Figg Leaves

THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE INFORMER (256 pp.) -- Edward Hyams -- Lippincott ($3.50).

This book starts with an engagingly simple idea: since British newspapers promote circulation by giving away prizes of automobiles, houses, radios and cash, why not offer readers something they can really get their teeth into? Why not, for instance, offer luscious Myrna Figg to the reader who can write the best love letter? Headed by a Machiavellian newspaperman, a group of literary zanies do just this. They take over an innocent weekly, The Slaughterhouse Informer, devoted to livestock prices, and stuff its dreary, beefy pages with scandalous matter. They feature Myrna Figg on the cover, over the bold caption: THIS BEAUTIFUL BRIDE

MUST BE WON.

Within a week, the Informer's circulation has risen from 500 to several million, and sweating mailmen are dragging love letters by sackfuls into the office. Apart from the great Figg feature, the Informer also gives some coverage to a British scientist who is suspected of having decamped Eastward with his nation's newest secret war weapon--electric eels. Another informative Informer expose concerns a movement called Ethical Recreation (which may remind some readers of Moral Re-Armament); its leader, Dr. Sloper, ministers chiefly to the rich, since "the poor are always Christian, they can't afford to be anything else."

But Myrna Figg remains the solidest circulation builder. It is all good, nonsensical fun and reaches a happy end when the richest man in the world, a sheik with an oil kingdom, writes the winning love letter. But was the sheik's letter really the best? Or were the editors' palms greased just a little with sheikly oil? Novelist Hyams minces no words in his satire on the British popular press. He says that in reaching their decision, the Informer's editors refused absolutely to let the sheik's wealth stand in the way of Myrna's happiness.

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