Books: Jape on Tape

OUT OF THE RED (244 pp.)—Caskie St;nnetf—Random House ($3.95).

The small island of Equatoria floats like a banana peel on the blue ocean swell of the Caribbean. The democratic Equatori-ans are engaged in their annual ritual revolution, and two local swindlers named Lopez and Pardo dread the rising "reform" dictator. Lopez mulcts tourists and gets a kickback from the police. This pair of wily thugs equip shifts of demonstrators to parade before the U.S. embassy with slogans suggesting that the latest revolutionary coup is a Communist takeover. The hoax works. Soon U.S. planes are...