Books: Puck Fair

THE ORGY by Muriel Rukeyser. 213 pages. Coward-McCann. $4.50.

The Puck Fair at Killorglin in West Kerry is an unholy midsummer Sabbath. Its origins are pre-Christian. The Puck is a wild male goat, the grandest that can be caught. For three days he rules. Priests and police crouch indoors. Strange road folk called tinkers swarm from caravans. Horse and cattle traders bargain early and drink late. Maidens and married ladies, undanced with for the rest of the year, play ten-toes-up with bumpkins made bold by Puck's fine pungence.

The narrator, a holidaying poet and biographer who is indistinguishable from Author Muriel Rukeyser herself,...

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