(4 of 4)
THE SUN KING, by Nancy Mitford. As an ornithologist studying the noble birds at Louis XlV's Court of Versailles, Author Mitford is more interested in song and plumage than strict biology, but her illustrated portrait of that resplendent monarch is a tidy job of dissection.
GILES GOAT-BOY, by John Barth. A surrealistic puzzler—or possibly a parable—about goatish activities on a far-out college campus that represents the modern world.
THE FIXER, by Bernard Malamud. A Jew in Czarist Russia was wrongly accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy; it was a cause celebre out of which Malamud has constructed a memorable tale of one man's nightmare.
THE ANTI-DEATH LEAGUE, by Kingsley Amis. The nervous neutralism of the cold war provides Amis with a theme for this slightly outrageous suspense story.
THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA, by Robert Crichton. A joyously funny fable about Italian villagers who have a ball keeping their precious vino out of the hands of the Germans during World War II.
THE BIRDS FALL DOWN, by Rebecca West. In her first novel in ten years, Dame Rebecca examines that most unscrupulous of all traitors, the double agent—although she does not add substantially to readers' understanding of the meaning of treason.
Best Sellers
FICTION 1. Valley of the Dolls, Susann (1 last week)
2. The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Crichton (4)
3. Tai-Pan, Clavell (2)
4. Capable of Honor, Drury (5)
5. The Adventurers, Robbins (3)
6. Giles Goat-Boy, Barth (6)
7. The Fixer, Malamud (7)
8. The Source, Michener (8)
9. All in the Family, O'Connor
10. Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Kemelman (10)
NONFICTION
1. How to Avoid Probate, Dacey (1)
2. Rush to Judgment, Lane (2)
3. Everything But Money, Levenson (3)
4. Games People Play, Berne (7)
5. Human Sexual Response, Masters and Johnson (5)
6. With Kennedy, Salinger (4)
7. Flying Saucers—Serious Business, Edwards (9)
8. Papa Hemingway, Hotchner (8)
9. The Search for Amelia Earhart, Goerner (10)
10. The Last Battle, Ryan
* All times E.D.T.