BOTTOM'S DREAM
Adapted from William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
by John Updike
An utterly mindless adaptation in which the only beautiful thing is Mendelssohn's music, and that's soundless. The book approximates a Walt Disney version of an art film, at once pretentious and childish. If Shakespeare's EngliSh is deemed beyond the youngster's comprehension, why does Updike intersperse quotations from the play with an Elizabethan-styled text? and if Shakespeare indeed can be comprehended, why does Mr. Updike get into the act at all? Mr. Chappell's pictures are variously charming, but insufficient unto themselves. O, for a good record and an honest retelling.