Forty-Two Days and Nights on the Iberian Peninsula with Anis Ladron

Anis Ladron, a somewhat less than reputable Spanish teacher at Battalion Academy, persuades the parents of four teenage Californians to subscribe to a ""study tour'' in Spain for their offspring. Highlights of this jaunt will supposedly include two weeks at the Cathedral of Capostel, ``the geographical and spiritual center of our study of the Iberian peninula.'' But it quickly transpires that Ladron's itinerary involves looking for ``suecas'' (young women) and imbibing liquor rather than high culture. This book is mainly about, and presumably for, adolescents, who perhaps share the characters' ignorance of such basic social transactions as eating and drinking in public and conversing with the opposite sex. The uneasy mix of satire and poorly integrated literary themes makes it difficult to grasp the author's intent, and this first novel never rises above a beginner's level. (May 5)