by Charles Gaines
Kenneth Dangler has a vast inherited fortune, and Andover and Harvard behind him. He has turned a New Hampshire mountain into a sort of Outward Bound for the spoiled rich. Dangler's jaded campers shoot a white-water course but their canoes are on a hidden rail so they can't get hurt. Still, they do develop a new appreciation of life. Gaines, who wrote Stay Hungry and Pumping Iron, has turned out a readable novel that is ambitious in theme but has a cleverness and melodramatic ending that work against its credibility. Although it's hard to like any of the willful characters, the book offers a perfect movie for, say, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. (Simon and Schuster, $ 12.95)
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