Manhattan

EVELYN PRENTICE--W. E. Woodward-- Knopf ($2.25).

Author Woodward says, &"The writing of novels is a form of human activity that requires neither knowledge nor experience and only a small amount of native talent, for its successful accomplishment.&" It is not surprising, therefore, that his own novels are not very good. But in spite of its author's cynical bluster and insensitive awkwardness, Evelyn Prentice slowly pulls itself together into a ponderous but dramatic tale.

Evelyn, beautiful, half-Spanish artist's daughter, was comfortably married. She had two children, a luxurious Manhattan house, a nice place in the country, plenty of spending-money from her elderly lawyer husband, John, and a poverty-stricken youth to look back on. She had even inherited a certain amount of talent from her father. But the poor thing was bored. Her husband bored her, and her husband's friends. When Larry Kennard (ne Swenson), a Greenwich Village literary racketeer and professional ladies' man, picked her up one day in a hotel lobby, she was thrilled. Author Woodward makes Larry a far-from-attractive specimen, tacitly defends himself by intimating that women's tastes are unaccountable. Some of Larry's more honeyed speeches: "Say, dear, give me your coat. . . . Please rise a moment, will you, dear? . . . You golden-voiced gal. . . . How about a little loving?" Evelyn thought he was just irresistible, yielded herself with hardly a struggle. It was not long, however, before she discovered he was a bad number. When he threatened blackmail she shot him. Another woman was arrested. Evelyn got Husband John to take the case; he got the woman off. Evelyn, no longer bored, appreciated her blessings more than ever.

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