The Cavalier daily. :: Tuesday, May 20, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

Joseph Morgenstern's first novel, an
irreverent odyssey irrelevantly called World
Champion, is probably the most exciting
new discovery I've made this year.

The novel valiantly attempts to comment
conclusively on various topics including
politics, bureaucracy, science, and other
staples of twentieth century life; it succeeds
surprisingly well for a novel with so much
scope and only 249 pages. Mr. Morgenstern's
style, a schitzophonomonic montage
of Farina, Heller, and particularly, Vonnegut,
is ideally suited to his black satiric
assault on the world.

World Champion is the story of Wro
Wranian, perhaps The Last True Believer
and a somewhat befuddled school teacher
on the island of Dororo. If you were to
stretch a string from Christchurch, New
Zealand to Antofagasta, Chile (well, if you
were going to), the midpoint would fall on
Dororo, a singularly beautiful microcosmic
island which is mysteriously engaged in a
fierce civil war.

No one seems to remember why Upper
and Lower Dororo' are fighting; even their
rulers, who are Siamese twin brothers, have
forgotten. Each blames the other, but both
agree that fighting can't stop because China
is aiding the Upper Zone, while the United
States is supplying the Lower Zone. Neither
side can stop until the other does, which is
difficult since they don't talk to each other.
It is sort of a Catch-22 answer for Viet Nam,
and is funny, until one realizes just what
he's talking about.

Wro Wrainn, who is tired of having his
back yard shelled, decides to find the
answer. He has little to do since his school
was closed by the army, and he has been
assigned to putting the names of everyone in
the country into alphabetical order for use
in a phone book. This strikes Wro as
somewhat pointless since many of the
people he is listing will be dead after the
war; the army simply points out that then
they won't answer their phones.

Wro's attempts are thwarted early, as he
is captured while leaving his zone. He is
brought to the secret hideout of Ustvan and
Lull, the Siamese twin brothers who run the
countries. They, unable to handle anyone so
weird as to want peace, suggest that he go to
Peking to see what can be done.

And so Wro, and his faithful cat Loop,
set out for China, to talk to the infamous
Chairman Pong about ending the Dororo
War. Getting there is easier than getting in,
China is temporarily full when Wro arrives,
and he has to wait for someone to leave
before he can enter. Inside, there is the
somewhat horrific scene of people walking
on each other's shoulders to save space, men
unable to do anything without the proper
forms, and other scary scenes from the
futuristic China of the Quarter Billion
Glories.

He finally meets Chairman Pong, a
befuddled woman who seems to spend most
of her time trying to figure out what to do
with the masses. She can't do any thing about
the war, but suggests that Wro go to the
United States to see what can be done there
to end the Dororo War.

Mr. Morgenstern saves his best satire for
America. He presents President Payson, an
absurd in public in a
series of enhance his
television problem
is his in America
get hysteria in overriding
cynicism sort of out and Wro,
failing, disappears.

World Champion is a surprisingly cinematic
book, probably due to Mr. Morgenstern's
years as Newsweek's film critic. Most
of its scenes are easily visualized, and are
best presented, that way; it is a difficult
story to condense into words.

Also an apparent by-product of years as
a critic is the book's cynical overview. Mr.
Morgenstern seems vitally concerned with
many of the problems facing contemporary
society, but all his comments are essentially
negative. In this sense, the book is inferior
to the equally sardonic writings of someone
like Kurt Vonnegut, who offers a philosophy
for coping with the hopeless absurdity
of it all.

But the satire is excellent; there are
many genuinely funny moments. Mr.
Morgenstern obviously loves to play with
words, and the book is beautifully written.
Further, the reader gets very involved with
Wro's Quixotic quest; it becomes very
important that Wro succeeds; when he
doesn't, it presents a sort of emotional crisis
which Mr. Morgenstern leaves unresolved.
The book is a chilling look at the role of the
pacifist in a war-oriented world.

World Champion is an ambitious first
novel; its few faults essentially come from
its having too broad a scope; 249 pages just
isn't long enough to finish everything Mr.
Morgenstern sets out to do. But it is well
worth reading for its original, biting satire,
black comic observations, and involving
character studies.

My columns this year have been concerned
with tracing some of the roots and
trends of contemporary literature. Joseph
Morgenstern has incorporated many of these
trends into a highly original and most
readable new style novel. It is in many ways
an ideal book to end this series with. Read
this one.