Kornbluth is a well known science fiction writer. He wrote this pulp under a pseudonym. Unfortunately, it's a mess, jumping without focus from one character's story to another's.
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Oh so very hard to rate. It's utterly hilarious, as I said at the halfway point, but it wasn't meant to be. I actually liked the writing, it's really tight, and packs an enormous amount into a fairly short book.

The cultural view of 1950's america is quite entertaining, and boy do these characters have real lives: There's everything from sculpture, an inside look at a news wire operation, carpets, a fairly deep (if brief) theological discussion that manages to cover Catholicism, Luther and Calvinism in three paragraphs (no really!). Also a mixed race out of wedlock baby, a junkie military wife, a bad boy who finds redemption after literally getting kicked upside the head and then hearing a random bible verse, And a lot of alcohol. Really a lot.

Oh and the predatory Lesbian (ob. caps), who is written without a single redeeming feature, unless you count that she's slim and doesn't look her age.

Anyway, mark this one down as a guilty pleasure. I love these old pulp novels, and this is definitely one of the most fun to read that I've come across. ( )