(4 of 4)
CAPABLE OF HONOR, by Allen Drury. The author's fictional sense occasionally goes awry and his style turns turgid. But his reportorial eye is sharp in this big and topical book about domestic and international chicanery, which carries forward the cast of characters introduced in Advise and Consent.
GILES GOAT-BOY, by John Earth. A labyrinth of intellectual booby traps leads into the deadpan center of a "university," which is Earth's metaphor for a mad, mad, mad world.
THE FIXER, by Bernard Malamud. A severe moralist, Malamud pits a helpless man against guilty authority in this poignant account of a Jew condemned to die for a crime he did not commit.
THE ANTI-DEATH LEAGUE, by Kingsley Amis. A sprightly cold war suspense story that keeps the reader looking so long in the wrong direction that he almost forgets the ending is not entirely credible.
THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA, by Robert Crichton. The best first novel of the year and perhaps the most rollickingly funny World War II novel since Mister Roberts.
THE MUSIC SCHOOL, by John Updike. Twenty short stories that show Updike at his best, though old fans may feel that they hear echoes rather than original sounds.
THIS AGE OF VIOLENCE, by Fredric Wertham. A clinical psychiatrist's indignant analysis of the seeds of violence in contemporary society, from toy guns and war games to TV drama and current fiction. Not even Superman or the Unknown Soldier get a clean bill of health in this unsettling and probably oversimplified book.
Best Sellers
FICTION 1. Valley of the Dolls, Susann (1 last week)
2. The Adventurers, Robbins (2)
3. Tai-Pan, Clavell (3)
4. The Detective, Thorp (4)
5. Giles Goat-Boy, Earth (5)
6. The Source, Michener (6)
7. Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Kemelman (9)
8. The Double Image, Maclnnes (7)
9. The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Crichton (10)
10. Tell No Man, St. Johns (8)
NONFICTION
1. How to Avoid Probate, Dacey (1)
2. Games People Play, Berne (2)
3. Human Sexual Response, Masters and Johnson (3)
4. Papa Hemingway, Hotchner (5)
5. Rush to Judgment, Lane (9)
6. Flying Saucers—Serious Business, Edwards (6)
7. Two Under the Indian Sun, Godden and Godden (8)
8. With Kennedy, Salinger
9. The Last Battle, Ryan (4) 10. In Cold Blood, Capote (7)
-All times E.D.T.