The Trials of Roderick Spode “The Human Ant”

One of America's most prestigious writers of plays (Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross ), screenplays, and novels turns his talents to lightweight whimsy in this series of slight, scribbly glimpses of an accidental superhero who thought he was stepping into a carnival photo booth, but actually was paying to be transformed into an ant half the time. This leads to trials , not adventures. Among other episodes, Roderick uncontrollably becomes an ant when a friend invites him on a picnic, is forced to work as a comma when he can't assist the police, and is transformed into a mutant combination of ant and cow when his fiendish foe European Sourdough Rye laces his drink with bovine growth hormone. The series of misadventures is gently amusing, but it's hard to imagine anyone without Mamet's fame getting the book published—certainly not in hardcover and at this price. (May)