Standard Of Conduct and Three Autobiographical Sketches: A Polemical Comedy In Four Parts

Frank Hazard

May 2019 · Xlibris Corporation

About this ebook

Frank Hazard relentlessly disregards political correctness in Standard of Conduct, a trenchant satire and hilarious comedy that depicts a day in the life of what the author calls an Ivy League dunce. The brisk narrative follows an Ivy League dunce and businessman named Walsh as he proceeds from his New York City apartment in the morning to his office downtown in the financial district to a meeting hours later with another businessman for lunch at a private club and, ultimately, to a prestigious clothing store, where he intends to buy an expensive red silk robe that raffishly allures him. There are shrewd, perceptive vignettes comprising an irresistible panoply of unique characters that include Walsh and his intellectually fastidious secretary, a former ballerina, and her fiancé, a forlorn artist whose career has perilously stalled; a young woman who toils in a real estate office as she indefatigably dreams of becoming a novelist; supercilious diplomats and diffident poets, indignant critics and deceitful lawyers; plutocrats and pedagogues and publishers, and two vainglorious groups called SOMPs and VOBs—delineated with acute, wry humor and keenly incisive wit. Deftly enhanced by vigorous, eloquent, and inventive language as lyrical as music, Standard of Conduct is a hilarious literary satire and superior entertainment as topical as it is timeless.

About the author

FRANK HAZARD BIOGRAPHY Frank Hazard is the author of THE FATAL HEIST, a dynamic crime thriller, and FROM CALYPSO’S ISLAND, a collection of stories and miscellaneous writings, three fabulist satires, SOW BELLY AND THE STRANGER, SOW BELLY AND THE THIEF and SOW BELLY AND THE THEATER, and ESCAPE FROM PHALARIS, an innovative exposition of art and creative endeavor. He was born on Sea Island, Georgia and raised in New Haven, Connecticut where his father was a member of the Athletic Staff at Yale University. An autodidact, Mr. Hazard began to read widely at an early age and he has been a feature writer, a drama critic and a general assignment reporter. Presently he lives in New York City with his wife Nancy, an artist who has provided the illustrations for many of his books.