Short Notices

A BAD MAN by Stanley Elkin. 336 pages. Random House. $4.95.

This is the work of a first-rate pyrotechnician with nothing to celebrate. Author Elkin's un-hero is Leo Feldman, who turns the basement of his department store into a wish factory, where his customers can get a fix, or a whore, or a gun, or an orgy. "There's a king's ransom," he explains, "in other people's dreams." So far, so good, in a black-humored sort of way. But then Feldman is sent to a Kafkaesque penitentiary, where he is robbed, brutalized, humiliated. He makes no protest --he is a "felled man." Not since Pilgrim's Progress have names been so cheerlessly symbolical; other examples are Dedman, Freedman, Flesh, Butt and Slipper. As the indignities to Feldman mount. Author Elkin's descriptions become more methodically disgusting. Despite his gift for sharp dialogue, wild humor and satyric satire he leaves the reader with an exasperating feeling of emptiness.

NO PLACE FOR AN ANGEL by Elizabeth Spencer. 305 pages. McGraw-Hill. $5.95.

There are certain characters in current U.S. fiction who just won't go away. One is the power-mad, philandering big shot in Washington, who can get things done for a prominent Senator. In this novel, he is the handsome Texas politico, Jerry Sasser, who marries the oil-rich home-town girl; it takes just about the whole book before he sees himself for the callous climber he really is. His wife Catherine is reduced to begging him just for once not to sleep with that little airline hostess.

Then there is the fellow who moves from one job and one country to another, with plenty of money but no time for his kids. In this instance, he is Charles Waddell, a foreign aid biggie, who makes a bad move in Cairo, is cuckolded in Italy, but grits his teeth and doesn't rock the boat. His wife knows everyone worth knowing and goes to all the right parties; only when she is past 40 does she begin to question her merry-go-round existence.

What makes this book notable is that its author is Elizabeth Spencer, who in her past work (The Voice at the Back Door, The Light in the Piazza] proved herself one of the best novelists among the many women now practicing the art. She has never been dull, never resorted to cliches and always made her stories move with sure grace and precision. No Place for an Angel may only be a temporary lapse.

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