Books: Prophet of the Inner Onion

THE S-MAN (174 pp.)—Mark Caine—Houghton Mifflin ($3).

Freudian man, Marxian man, organization man, lifeman, gamesman and grey-flannel-suit man—what were they compared to the S-Man? Piglets to a python. In the diabolically clever guise of a self-help manual, The S-Man aims a good Swiftian kick at the cult and cultists of success. A British export, the book lacks the clubby good humor of Parkinson and Potter, substitutes instead the wittily barbed aphorisms of the success man's ascent ("New friends are best friends"). Cocktail party Platos will find a host of new S-Man concepts, including...