LUMP IT OR LEAVE IT <i> by Florence King (St. Martin’s Press: $8.95).</i>

One of the most acerbic commentators writing today, Florence King offers her frequently devastating opinions on the follies of life and letters in contemporary America. King is unsparing in her evaluations of various authors, the craze for psychobabble and the muddled politics of ‘90s feminism: Her escutcheon might well read “With malice toward all.” She remains loyal to a vaguely chivalric Southern code of conduct and to a curious admixture of classical erudition, militant individualism and hidebound political conservatism. After dismissing the drip-dry liberal politics of a lesbian journalist who interviewed her after reading “Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye,” she concludes, “I don’t mind being regarded as perverted and unnatural, but I would die if people thought I was a Democrat.” In a deliciously snide essay on the American fascination with fame, she lampoons the pseudo-celebrities who mangle the national anthem at baseball games: “These ‘singers’ could not drive a plague wagon through a medieval street without going flat on ‘Bring out your dead!’ ” Hilarious, but not for the faint-hearted.