FICTION: THE YEAR'S BEST

THE LAST HURRAH, by Edwin O'Connor. A lusty, irreverent and affectionate fictional portrait of a shrewd gasbag who became a powerful political boss. The story stays on target so steadily that Boston's ex-Mayor Jim Curley still thinks he was having his picture taken.

THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH, by Honor Tracy. Probably the year's funniest novel, a fine Irish stew of a farce in which a visiting Englishman takes on not only the Irish clergy but Ireland as well, in a contest of face saving and legpulling.

THE MERMAIDS, by Eva Boros. The...

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