cover image Mh Meets President Harding

Mh Meets President Harding

Michael Zagst. Dutton Books, $17.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-55611-010-8

This breezy novel by the author of The Greening of Thurmond Leaner is narrated by nonagenarian Sid Halverton. Sid is in excellent shapehis doctor says he has the body of a 71-year-oldand possesses a phenomenal memory, so phenomenal, in fact, that he can remember in detail a week spent in the company of four luminaries of the 1920s: Warren G. Harding, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. Halverston, a business associate of Edison, brings his lover, the mysterious and elusive Margarete, to an annual camp-out sponsored by the great inventor. When Margarete kidnaps Harding (who apparently couldn't resist an attractive woman), Halverton, Ford, Edison and Firestone set out in hot pursuit. Everything about this book is wildly improbable, but its lighthearted spirit is engaging. (April 29)