Iowa's Connecticut

WEEK-END -- Phil Stong -- Harcourt, Brace ($2).

Connecticut used to be one of the New England states, and to New Englanders it still is, but Manhattanites tend to think of it as a rustic week-end resort. To Iowa-born Phil Stong, writing of the sophisticated eccentricities of a Manhattanite smart set, Connecticut is a natural setting for their Jabberwockian gimblings. Author Stong's brilliant exaggeration has made even his native Iowa a melodramatic backdrop; with the iridescent decadence of a Westerner's East in which to dip his brush, he has outdone himself. His Week-End is a melodrama of gamily high life, told with unaffectedly high spirits.

Flora, a beautiful and well-to-do woman verging on spinsterhood, had the dangerous idea of inviting all her friends for a weekend. Her friends, like most lovely women's friends, were not friends; some of them were enthusiastic enemies. They arrived, in various stages of intoxication, exhaustion and disgust, sank further into their emotional states when they saw who their fellow-guests were. The happily married scientists were embarrassed, tried not to show it. The mousy banker, Flora's tame cat, who had been picked up by a golddigger en route, had no eyes for anyone but his hostess. The golddigger, seeing that her dishonorable designs on the banker were hopeless, became honorable, which disappointed the professional Southerner. The pseudo-explorer, falsely thought to be Flora's lover, tried to get taken on by the advertising man's rich wife. The advertising man, who hated his wife sincerely and thought he loved Flora more than his own tragic ego, was shown his mistake. The hard-bitten drunk and the cool-headed lady in search of a husband both came through with flying colors, got what they wanted. Author Stong, knowing what the audience at a melodrama expects, pairs his couples off nicely, with small loss of life: one loathsome little dog, one banker.

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