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If the whole thing is fairly deplorable, it is clear enough why. Had Playwright Wouk meant primarily to amuse, his theme would have demanded not the ripe tomatoes of noisy, tinny farce but the sauce tartare of a satiric comedy of manners. If his concern, on the other hand, was really not manners but morals, and his mood not amusement but anger, he should at least have wielded an honest whip, have created a significant world. As it is, in Wouk's exalting nature's way as opposed to society's waywardness, his approach seems no more gay than serious. In fact, it seems chiefly commercial.