Books: Tough Fairytale

FULLY DRESSED AND IN HIS RIGHT MIND—Michael Fessier—Knopf ($2).

Of the school of U. S. writers which believes that toughness can cover a multitude of weakly sins, Michael Fessier is the latest exponent. Last week his first novel, Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind tried to show skeptical readers that a hard-boiled manner could make even a fairytale come true. The result was more like a parody than a parable—as if General Hugh Johnson had written his code version of one of the rayon-gossamer fables of Oscar Wilde. But readers who were stunned into shocked attention by The Postman Always Rings...