Books: A Star Is Farrowed

DIRTY EDDIE (240 pp.) — Ludwig Bemelmans—Viking ($2.75).

" 'Nice pig,' said Moses Fable, who usually paid no attention to bit players and extras." The pig, Dirty Eddie, black, underprivileged, but unmistakably talented, is the hero of Ludwig Bemelmans' third whimsical novel. Moses Fable was the fleshy, flashy chief of Hollywood's Olympia Studios. Bemelmans (Hotel Splendide, I Love You, I Love You, I Love You) gets more out of a pig than Swift and Armour (they miss the whimsy as well as the squeal). Dirty Eddie becomes a $5,000-a-week movie star who earns...