THE GENERAL (191 pp.)Karlludwig OpitzJohn Day ($3).
The art of satire does not grow readily from Germany's heavy soil. One notable postwar exception is Forward, Gunner Asch! (TIME, Oct. 29), which aimed its laughter mostly at the petty tyrannies and tribulations of noncoms. Now another German satire boldly advances to spoof the other end of the Wehrmacht hierarchy. To General von Puckhammer, peace is a prelude to war, life a dress rehearsal for death. He regards a soldier's calling as holy, for he believes that God is a fellow Prussian. When his monocle glints, junior officers blanch. But just as no man...