Imelda Marcos

Halfway through this dated expose of ""Meldy,'' husband ``Ferdie'' and Meldy's jet-set ``gang,'' the reader is told that the first portion of the bookwritten by this Filipino journalist on information gathered from a servant in the First Lady's childhood household, from her music teacher and from a cousinwas published in the Philippines in 1970, and that although the Marcoses failed to ``squelch'' it then, the book was banned two years later. If Meldy's countrymen were titillated by revelations that, contrary to her aristocratic image, she belonged to the poor branch of her illustrious family, that this child of a second marriage lived with her mother and siblings above a garage while her father and his first set of children lived in the manse, today's readers will be boredas they also will be at the material about the Marcoses' opulent lifestyle, which is covered in the newer section of the book, taking us up to their fall, which isn't exactly news either. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to the Star. (April 20)