THE FULL CATASTROPHE <i> by David Carkeet (The Linden Press: $18.95; 317 pp.; </i>

” . . . eccentric, hilarious, wildly inventive and eerily accurate. It’s the sort of zany social satire that hasn’t been encountered much since the ‘60s . . . Carkeet harks back to classic humorists like Stephen Leacock and Robert Benchley.”