Reviews

Iluminado Castillo, a young Colombian army captain, is sent to the Pentagon, ostensibly to attend Counter Coup School. In fact, the trip has been engineered by his lover, wife of the leader of the current junta, so that he might learn the ways of sophisticated women. On arrival, he is mistaken for his father, who is supposed to be in Washington negotiating bribes on arms contracts, and through a strange combination of events, Iluminado becomes the linchpin of an important defense appropriations bill. The result is savagely funny, sometimes out of control (at one point, Iluminado bounces the Joint Chiefs of Staff around in the bucket of a payloader)a farce on the order of the ``Three Stooges Meet Dr. Strangelove.'' Terrall, author of more than 50 novels (including 24 Mike Shayne mysteries), proves himself a satirist who is bound to raise hackles around the Beltway and beyond. January

A wildly inventive caper satirizing politics, the Pentagon, and American mores, this is the saga of a young Colombian captain's strange encounters in Washington. Following a totally mad military and criminal blow-up at a Colombia casino, Illuminado Castillo leaves to attend a special school in the Pentagon. Mistaken for his own father (a go-between on arms deals, pay-offs, etc.) Illuminado, Jr. is pursued by corporations, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a voluptuous redhead. Illuminado, Jr. turns out to be completely honest and quite effective in eluding virtually everyone except the redhead. Most of the author's targets are neatly hit, although the technology of the mad climax goes a bit too far. This is the first U.S.-originated Penguin fiction title, and it is a very, very funny book. Robert H. Donahugh, Youngstown and Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio