Flash and Filigree — Terry Southern

Terry Southern is an acclaimed satirist of American culture, the writer responsible for Candy and the screenplay of Dr. Strangelove. In Flash and Filigree, his first novel, he delivers yet another outrageously funny commentary on the dark side of our national life. Frederick Eichner, world-renowned dermatologist, is visited by the entrancingly irritating Mr. Felix Treevly, who comes to him as a patient and stays as an obsession. Mr. Treevly leads the doctor into a series of hilarious and increasingly weird situations, which, with the assistance of a drunken private detective, a mad judge, a car crash, and a hashish party, finally drive him to mayhem. A wild whirlwind of a novel, Flash and Filigree is a work of comic genius from one of the wittiest writers of our time.