Books: Short Notices: Jun. 23, 1967

THE KING by Morton Cooper. 433 pages. Bernard Geis Associates. $5.95.

Readers will readily identify "the King," Singer Harry Orlando, as Frank Sinatra. With that discovery, all public interest in Morton Cooper's novel should wane—although it probably won't. The author and his publisher have aimed it confidently at the bestseller list, although Cooper's literary defects and unerring tastelessness would fill an office wastebasket. Orlando is an unmitigated bore tirelessly indulging his libido, yearning to become head of the White House's Cultural Exchange program—a prize ultimately denied him. The book is so bad that Bennett Cerf of Random House, who used to distribute...