Castle Keep

Castle Keep by William Eastlake. Simon and Schuster, $5.95.

“If you can let me have ten of your best men, I can retake the whorehouse,” says Private First Class Alistair P. Benjamin, a Negro. The war is World War II, more or less, though it’s not that simple because the whorehouse is called La Reine Rouge and is run by the Red Queen. At one point someone says “What the fuck war is this?” several times, and the Red Queen says to the boys—just as the Red Queen says to Alice—”Where do you come from and where are you going?”