To the Editor:

Pearl K. Bell’s review of Joseph Heller’s Good as Gold [Fiction, “Heller and Malamud, Then & Now,” June] is one of the finest I have ever read. It’s about time for the highly overrated Heller to be deflated. His book is not even poor caricature. It’s bad slapstick—trite, vulgar, and unimaginative. . . .

Arthur Weiss
New York City

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To the Editor:

I was thoroughly delighted with Richard Grenier’s astute critique of Woody Allen’s recent film, Manhattan [Movies, “Woody Allen in the Limelight,” July]. I found the look of the film affected and the plot self-indulgent. Woody Allen is seduced by the very “life style” he pretends to deprecate. I liked him better before he became a genius.

Dana-Lynn Mack
New York City