Book excerpt: Witty and ironic picture of New York society and society people in rear-eschelon desk jobs in the Canal Zone and at sea. Beverly Stregelinus, a young, upper-class New Yorker, is a charming young man, but aware of his ingratiating deficiencies. At the eve of World War II, his days are filled with charity and committee work after losing hisart gallery job. Pearl Harbor shatters all this and catapults him into a desk job in the Canal Zone as a lieutenant. Under these strange and bewildering circumstances, a court-martial scandal entangles Beverly and his Navy friends and marks the beginning of the real education of Beverly Stregelinus.