Books: Do Unto Others

THE UNEXPURGATED CODE: A COMPLETE MANUAL OF SURVIVAL & MANNERS

by J.P. DONLEAVY

283 pages. Delacorte. $10.

If the many readers of The Ginger Man, James Patrick Donleavy's first and best novel, can somehow imagine its savagely baleful young anti-hero Sebastian Dangerfield being resurrected a quarter of a century afterward and sitting down to compose an advice book for late 20th century man, they should have a rough idea of The Unexpurgated Code. It might well be subtitled I'm Not O.K., You're Not O.K. A collection of bilious and often funny rules for living, the book qualifies as philosophy according to Donleavy's...