daily nebraskan
arts & snl
page 8
Self-pity, self-disgust tone
ruins 'Choirboys' purpose
Review by Bill Roberts
The Choirboys,by Joseph Wambaugh
Deiacorte Press, New York $8.95
With The Choirboys, Joseph Wambaugh
gives us another skillfully written novel
showing his sympathy for the American
policeman. But this time, the incident
Wambaugh chooses as the focal point of
his story ruins his attempt to win the
reader's wympathy.
After their grueling night shift, 10 Los
Angeles patrolmen hold weekly drunken
orgies in MacArthur Park. The strain of
their jobs is too much, it seems, so they
simply have to blow off steam
The orgies are called "choir practices,"
the policemen "choirboys," the women
who attend are named Ora Lee Tingle and
Carolina Moon.
Asks for sympathy
Wambaugh asks the reader to feel sorry
for these hard-pressed men whose
emotional stress drives them to such de
grading actions. More than that, Wambaugh
expects the reader to excuse the killing of a
pathetic homosexual who happens to
wander into the path of one of the drunk,
gun-wielding cops.
Really, it is too much to ask. The
author, in his laudable campaign to give a
badge-side account of society, serves us
more than we can swallow.
In The New Centurions, the first novel
by Wambaugh, a former police detective,
the perspective on the 1966 Watts riots
was welcome. It was a fascinating portrayal
of a most important chapter in American
history.
Certainly the off-duty lives of police
men are of legitimate interest too. But
Wambaugh's attitude toward the orgies of
these policement gives the novel a tone of
self-pity and self-disgust.
"I mean that the weakness of the
human race is stupefying and that it's not
the capacity for evil which astounds young
policen n," Wambaugh has the novel's
most intelligent character say.
"Rather it's the mind-boggling worth
lessness of human beings," he concludes.
'There's not enough dignity in mankind
for evil and that's the most terrifying
thing a policeman learns."
Leaving aside the supposed dignity of
evil, there's not enough humanity in
Wambaugh's book. That's the most dis
appointing thing about the otherwise
realistic Choirboys.
Huskers top book list
Below are best sellers this week in
Lincoln.
Best sellers in Lincoln
Nonfiction
1. Cornhuskers Number One, Israel
2. All the Strange Hours, Eiseley
3. Angels, Graham
4. The Doonesbury Chronicles, Trudcau
5. The Greatest, Mi
Fiction
1. Curtain, Christie
2. Ragtime, Doctorow
3. The Choirboys, Wambaugh ,
4. Beyond the Bedroom Wall, Woiwode
5. The Greek Treasure, Stone
List compiled from five bestselling
books at B. Dalton, The Nebraska Book
Store and Miller and Paine.
up&
Off Campus
Art
Haymarket Art Gallery-1 19 S. 9th- Paint
ings by Chauncey Nelson, jewelry by
Brenda Gingles and Judith Kunic Golke
through Nov. 24.
Music
O'Donneil Auditorium- Slst and Baldwin
Lincoln Symphony Orchestra- Tues.-
8 pjn.; First Assembly of God Church
56th and R- Evangel College Choir- Fri.
7 pjn., Pershing Auditorium- 15th and
N- Peter Frampton and Dave Mason-Sat.-
8 pjn.
Theater
Lincoln Community Playhouse- 2500 S.
56th- That Championship Season- Fri,
and Sat.-8 pjn.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
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