Tornado Pratt

Tornado Pratt is an American tycoon who sometimes harbors political aspirations. He now lies dying in a hotel and regales someone who may or may not be his faithful assistant with tales of his past. Most of Tornado's escapades have to do with sex, but he claims to have had a loving marriage in which he was free to engage in affairs with other women. The contradictory, rambling tone of the unreliable Tornado is more wearying than amusing, and an overabundance of subheadings does nothing to organize the narrative, especially since Tornado contradicts those as well. The story lacks forward motion, because nothing sticks with Tornado Pratt. He briefly admires Hitler, then gives up that interest when a woman is turned off by his extensive library of Third Reich material. At one point Tornado quotes someone as saying that ``Everyone wants something. That's the American way of life.'' It is never clear, however, what Tornado Pratt wants or why he is expounding in this way, and even if he gave a reason no one would or could believe it. Ableman's ( I Hear Voices ) novel was first published in England in 1977. (Sept.)