Books: She Who Gets Slapped

A SEASON OF MISTS (243 pp.)—Honor Tracy—Random House ($3.95).

Charlie Chaplin once explained: "When I walk right up and slap a grand lady because she gave me a contemptuous look, it is really right. -They won't admit it, but it's right, and that is why they laugh. I make them conscious of the reality of life. 'You think this is it, don't you?' I say. 'Well, it isn't, but this is—see?' And then they laugh."

Novelist Honor Tracy understands Chaplin's kind of reality, as she has amply demonstrated in two previous acid-witty novels. The Straight and...