Book Log 2006 #12: MASH Goes to Morocco by Richard Hooker with William E. Butterworth

I won this book as a trash prize years ago, and kept it given my M*A*S*H fandom. I'd not considered reading it until I needed a book that would fit in my coat, as I was going somewhere where I couldn't bring my bag.

The book is awful. It's mostly focused on characters meant as caricatures of contemporary figures, with only supporting roles by actual M*A*S*H characters (who are generally portrayed in roles that don't seem to follow from the TV show, which was hitting its stride when this book came out in 1976). I won't even get into the stereotypes used for the Moroccans, which if published today would lead to flag burning outside US embassies. The overall tone of the book is "aging hipster," like if the '60s version of Austin Powers wrote a book.

I only read half of the book, and don't see myself going back for the other half.

Interestingly, Butterworth is better known as W.E.B. Griffin, author of a lot of popular military fiction. Hard to imagine anyone connected with writing this crap could carve out a living as an author, but there you go. My understanding is that Hooker is an author in name only, and I hope he was suitably chagrined at having his name on this (in between cashing the checks, at least).