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Flash and Filigree
Terry Southern is an acclaimed satirist of American culture, the writer responsible for Candy and the screenplay of Dr. Strangelove. In Flash and Filigree, his first novel, he delivers yet another outrageously funny commentary on the dark side of our national life.
Frederick Eichner, world-renowned dermatologist, is visited by the entrancingly irritating Mr. Felix Treevly, who comes to him as a patient and stays as an obsession. Mr. Treevly leads the doctor into a series of hilarious and increasingly weird situations, which, with the assistance of a drunken private detective, a mad judge, a car crash, and a hashish party, finally drive him to mayhem.
A wild whirlwind of a novel, Flash and Filigree is a work of comic genius from one of the wittiest writers of our time.
Frederick Eichner, world-renowned dermatologist, is visited by the entrancingly irritating Mr. Felix Treevly, who comes to him as a patient and stays as an obsession. Mr. Treevly leads the doctor into a series of hilarious and increasingly weird situations, which, with the assistance of a drunken private detective, a mad judge, a car crash, and a hashish party, finally drive him to mayhem.
A wild whirlwind of a novel, Flash and Filigree is a work of comic genius from one of the wittiest writers of our time.
204 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
16 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Terry Southern
64 books137 followersTerry Southern was an American novelist, screenwriter, essayist, and satirist renowned for his sharp wit, fearless satire, and incisive observations on American life. A leading voice of the counterculture and a progenitor of New Journalism, Southern made lasting contributions to both literature and film, influencing generations of writers and filmmakers with his unique blend of surreal humor and cultural critique.
Born in Alvarado, Texas, Southern served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he was stationed in North Africa and Italy. After the war, he studied philosophy at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago before moving to Paris in 1948 on the G.I. Bill. There, he became part of the expatriate literary scene and developed friendships with other writers and artists. It was during this period that he met Mason Hoffenberg, with whom he co-wrote the controversial erotic satire Candy, published in 1958. The novel was banned in several countries but became an underground classic, cementing Southern’s reputation as a daring literary voice.
Southern’s first novel, Flash and Filigree (1958), introduced readers to his darkly comedic style, but it was The Magic Christian (1959) that brought him broader acclaim. The book, which satirizes greed and corruption through the antics of an eccentric billionaire, exemplified Southern’s trademark irreverence and biting social commentary. He followed this with the acclaimed short story collection Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes (1967), the porn-industry parody Blue Movie (1970), and the semi-autobiographical Texas Summer (1992).
In the 1960s, Southern turned to screenwriting and quickly became one of the most sought-after writers in Hollywood. He co-wrote the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), a black comedy about nuclear war that earned him an Academy Award nomination. His other screenwriting credits include The Loved One (1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Barbarella (1968), Easy Rider (1969), and the film adaptation of The Magic Christian (1969). His work on Easy Rider was particularly significant, as the film became a landmark of the New Hollywood era and a symbol of the American counterculture.
Southern's literary and journalistic work also found homes in major publications such as Esquire, Harper’s, and The Paris Review. His style helped pave the way for the New Journalism movement, and Tom Wolfe cited Southern as a major influence. Beyond his literary and cinematic achievements, Southern was known for his friendships with notable cultural figures, including William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Hunter S. Thompson.
Despite early success, Southern struggled in his later years with financial instability and health problems. He continued to write and teach, contributing to Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s and lecturing on screenwriting at institutions like New York University and Columbia University.
Terry Southern died in New York City in 1995 of respiratory failure. Though his name is less known today than some of his contemporaries, his work remains influential. Revered for his unapologetic voice and imaginative storytelling, Southern is remembered as a fearless satirist who pushed the boundaries of both literature and film.
Born in Alvarado, Texas, Southern served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he was stationed in North Africa and Italy. After the war, he studied philosophy at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago before moving to Paris in 1948 on the G.I. Bill. There, he became part of the expatriate literary scene and developed friendships with other writers and artists. It was during this period that he met Mason Hoffenberg, with whom he co-wrote the controversial erotic satire Candy, published in 1958. The novel was banned in several countries but became an underground classic, cementing Southern’s reputation as a daring literary voice.
Southern’s first novel, Flash and Filigree (1958), introduced readers to his darkly comedic style, but it was The Magic Christian (1959) that brought him broader acclaim. The book, which satirizes greed and corruption through the antics of an eccentric billionaire, exemplified Southern’s trademark irreverence and biting social commentary. He followed this with the acclaimed short story collection Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes (1967), the porn-industry parody Blue Movie (1970), and the semi-autobiographical Texas Summer (1992).
In the 1960s, Southern turned to screenwriting and quickly became one of the most sought-after writers in Hollywood. He co-wrote the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), a black comedy about nuclear war that earned him an Academy Award nomination. His other screenwriting credits include The Loved One (1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Barbarella (1968), Easy Rider (1969), and the film adaptation of The Magic Christian (1969). His work on Easy Rider was particularly significant, as the film became a landmark of the New Hollywood era and a symbol of the American counterculture.
Southern's literary and journalistic work also found homes in major publications such as Esquire, Harper’s, and The Paris Review. His style helped pave the way for the New Journalism movement, and Tom Wolfe cited Southern as a major influence. Beyond his literary and cinematic achievements, Southern was known for his friendships with notable cultural figures, including William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Hunter S. Thompson.
Despite early success, Southern struggled in his later years with financial instability and health problems. He continued to write and teach, contributing to Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s and lecturing on screenwriting at institutions like New York University and Columbia University.
Terry Southern died in New York City in 1995 of respiratory failure. Though his name is less known today than some of his contemporaries, his work remains influential. Revered for his unapologetic voice and imaginative storytelling, Southern is remembered as a fearless satirist who pushed the boundaries of both literature and film.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
September 12, 2011
funny, surreal, fast-paced, sometimes well-written and sometimes sloppy first novel from a brilliant screenwriter. unfortunately, also rather unpleasantly dated (wannabe-funny date rape scene, anyone?) and the satire often felt forced. many laugh-out loud moments but overall rather wearying. is this novel a precursor to Bizarro? i have no idea, i've never read that genre.
favorite sequence: the game show "What's My Disease". you even get to see what goes on behind the scenes. nothing good, i promise!
favorite sequence: the game show "What's My Disease". you even get to see what goes on behind the scenes. nothing good, i promise!
August 29, 2015
The first few chapters were some of the most brilliant and quirky chapters of any book I've ever read. And then it became disjointed and rolled downhill. Just ended up being okay.
October 25, 2011
Inexplicable, and certainly not a comedy. Terry Southern is credited with adding whatever humor is present in the film "Dr. Strangelove," and is generally referred to as a master of dark comedy. The cover of this book declares it "The comic masterpiece by the co-author of Candy and Strangelove," though I could find nothing comedic about this thing. It could be more accurately described as a searing indictment of binding repression of the 1950's when the book was written. Perhaps the most poignant moment is a Head nurse's barely restrained Lesbian desire as she comforts her young nurse underling shortly before that young nurse gets date raped. This is hardly what I call comedy.
The story is made up of a seemingly random series of events surrounding a doctor and his clinic that are actually loosely connected in a hardly plausible manner, including the doctor attending the live taping of a TV game show called "What's my disease" where a celebrity panel tries to guess what kind of strange disease a masked contestant has. One has elephantiasis. Weirdly enough, as a guy somewhat familiar with old cars, I was most put off by the unlikely profusion of extremely rare sports cars. I can believe a character who is obsessed with stylish sports cars, as the doctor is. He drives a Delahaye at the beginning of the book, but crashes it. I can believe that. But, towards the end he steals a randomly parked Kaiser-Darrin of all things. Look it up. It had sliding doors that slid into the front fenders, and less than 400 were ever built. No one leaves these around. You're just as likely to buy an actual Faberge egg from Goodwill for 50 cents.
Anyway, I was pissed off by the absurdity of the book. Maybe that's where the comedy comes from.
The story is made up of a seemingly random series of events surrounding a doctor and his clinic that are actually loosely connected in a hardly plausible manner, including the doctor attending the live taping of a TV game show called "What's my disease" where a celebrity panel tries to guess what kind of strange disease a masked contestant has. One has elephantiasis. Weirdly enough, as a guy somewhat familiar with old cars, I was most put off by the unlikely profusion of extremely rare sports cars. I can believe a character who is obsessed with stylish sports cars, as the doctor is. He drives a Delahaye at the beginning of the book, but crashes it. I can believe that. But, towards the end he steals a randomly parked Kaiser-Darrin of all things. Look it up. It had sliding doors that slid into the front fenders, and less than 400 were ever built. No one leaves these around. You're just as likely to buy an actual Faberge egg from Goodwill for 50 cents.
Anyway, I was pissed off by the absurdity of the book. Maybe that's where the comedy comes from.
February 22, 2012
The least of Southern's novels. It's not poorly written. Indeed, it has the charm and succinctness of Southern's eye toward society. But it is restrained, as if Southern wanted to write the brutal scathing things he wrote in his later novels but wasn't allowed to be too daring.
The plot is ludicrous of course and doesn't make sense, but Southern hasn't pushed his satire or dark comedy far enough to be funny. Neither does he control the narrative or prose enough to make it meaningful.
The plot is ludicrous of course and doesn't make sense, but Southern hasn't pushed his satire or dark comedy far enough to be funny. Neither does he control the narrative or prose enough to make it meaningful.
February 16, 2014
Pynchon-lite before there was even a Pynchon (to speak of) on the horizon - published in 1958, this darkly madcap novel anticipates the black comedy of, oh, I dunno, Crying of Lot 49 and much of what was subliminally hateful (a term that probably makes more sense to me and my LEGOland/Candyland internal logic than to anybody else) and itchingly prophetic (see previous parenthetical) of Summer of Love (era) cinema (but that's a "duh", author also wrote some of Dr. Strangelove) - and there ain't a likeable character in the cast (save for the innocent Babs), but Southern somehow keeps it hanging together, moving forward, and dresses the plot with flashes and filigree of poetry - it's an insane soup, but I couldn't stop reading. I wanted to see: what the fuck would happen.
Note: There is a version with a (brief) intro by William S. Burroughs (I read it standing in the aisle at a used bookstore today) that sheds some light on certain characters and their psychomotivations. You don't need Uncle Bill's observation to enjoy it (and, really, I think he was off the mark).
Another note: I decided to read this (it was on a far shelf in my personal library - picked up a couple of years ago on vague name-familiarity alone - the carnal comic classic Candy - at a library book sale) after watching a John Updike video wherein he gives major props to Henry Green. Curious, I picked up a Henry Green previously-uncollected collection at the library - the only such volume by Green available at the library - (Surviving) - that included, among a lot of stuff I skipped/skimmed, both a review of this novel as well as a Paris Review interview (Green interviewed by Southern).
Note: There is a version with a (brief) intro by William S. Burroughs (I read it standing in the aisle at a used bookstore today) that sheds some light on certain characters and their psychomotivations. You don't need Uncle Bill's observation to enjoy it (and, really, I think he was off the mark).
Another note: I decided to read this (it was on a far shelf in my personal library - picked up a couple of years ago on vague name-familiarity alone - the carnal comic classic Candy - at a library book sale) after watching a John Updike video wherein he gives major props to Henry Green. Curious, I picked up a Henry Green previously-uncollected collection at the library - the only such volume by Green available at the library - (Surviving) - that included, among a lot of stuff I skipped/skimmed, both a review of this novel as well as a Paris Review interview (Green interviewed by Southern).
April 25, 2020
Handles dialogue beautifully; does little else and goes nowhere.
August 12, 2013
Let me just disclaimer by saying I love "Dr. Strangelove," loved "Now Dig This," the author's collection of essays, and I still plan to read "Candy" and "The Magic Christian" and "Blue Movie." But man, I was *not* feeling this. Calling it a "black comedy" seems a bit strong, as I had to scrabble hard in my heart to claw out a forced chuckle two or three times. Maybe it's just on the other side of a puritanical/rebellious wall, and it was a lot more bawdy for its time. I'm willing to make that adjustment in my mind. Or maybe it's satirizing a style of detective literature I'm insufficiently steeped in. I can't get a bead on this one. It's not a one-star book because there are things I liked about it. I like the central issue of the protagonist, this strange man who won't stop bugging Dr. Eichner. Southern leaves it ambiguous about what he's trying to accomplish, which gives it a dreamlike gothic horror feeling, this strange man who speaks in riddles and won't leave you alone. The "wild" party scene seems impossibly tame now, though the party girl who is trying to get high on black pepper elicited one of the small chuckles noted above. But as I got to the last page, I think I was hoping for more payoff -- or SOME payoff -- but it really seemed like a novella's worth of information stuffed into a 200 page novel. Also, there's some truly tortured sentences around the hospital scenes (again, I almost think he must be parodying a writing style I'm not privy to) and a not particularly funny date-rape scene that I think is supposed to be funny. Or...cautionary?
I disliked this book, but not to the core. And I'm not done with Southern yet.
I disliked this book, but not to the core. And I'm not done with Southern yet.
March 15, 2024
This is the worst book I have read in a long time.
Even as far as first novels go, this one was fucking awful. It's one part satire of the crime noir genre, one half bitter social commentary with the two tenuously connected by sharing a location. One portion focuses on Babs, a beautiful young nurse who feigns naivety and eventually is raped by a coworker. She is grateful for that and falls in love with him. That's it. Rape as satire. That doesn't work for me.
The second portion is a bizarre feud between a dermatologist and his patient which contrives to mock the hard boiled detective/underworld aspects of 50's California, and while it manages a few laughs, it's overwritten and nothing more than a means to a punchline ending. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Even as far as first novels go, this one was fucking awful. It's one part satire of the crime noir genre, one half bitter social commentary with the two tenuously connected by sharing a location. One portion focuses on Babs, a beautiful young nurse who feigns naivety and eventually is raped by a coworker. She is grateful for that and falls in love with him. That's it. Rape as satire. That doesn't work for me.
The second portion is a bizarre feud between a dermatologist and his patient which contrives to mock the hard boiled detective/underworld aspects of 50's California, and while it manages a few laughs, it's overwritten and nothing more than a means to a punchline ending. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
October 27, 2017
Great stylist, maybe a little florid, but to what end? Entertaining enough but lacking substance.
May 9, 2023
Terry Southern's Flash and Filigree was his first novel. It is interesting to see the same talent that created The Magic Christian and Candy falter a bit -- not quite knowing how to use his massive comic skill to best effect.
Perhaps the main problem with the novel is that it lacks a focus. We see several different characters take the limelight at various points. It was not a mistake that Southern was to make again.
Perhaps the main problem with the novel is that it lacks a focus. We see several different characters take the limelight at various points. It was not a mistake that Southern was to make again.
September 9, 2025
Southern's first novel is clever enough and more straightforward than most of his subsequent work, although not always in ways that have aged well. The date rape scene is tough to read and so agonizingly long that I honestly don't even know if it's meant to read as comedic or parodic at all. When juxtaposed with similarly-toned scenes in "Candy" or "Blue Movie," I think this one doesn't telegraph its satirical intentions clearly enough for them to register (again, if it even possesses them).
A brisk read, to be sure, and one with more weight to it than the cartoonish likes of "The Magic Christian" or the playfully pornographic likes of "Candy" and "Blue Movie." Some clever stuff here (the "what's my disease" game show chief among them), but much of the rest feels dated, unfocused, or some combination of both of those descriptors.
A brisk read, to be sure, and one with more weight to it than the cartoonish likes of "The Magic Christian" or the playfully pornographic likes of "Candy" and "Blue Movie." Some clever stuff here (the "what's my disease" game show chief among them), but much of the rest feels dated, unfocused, or some combination of both of those descriptors.
January 14, 2020
Okay first novel but so much of what's going on here is handled better in Southern's other work that, arrived at late in the game, it seems a bit superfluous. The deterioration of the wasteland into even worse places, framed by peyote, greed, class struggle, and the comical (uncomfortably misogynistic) dance of the sexes. Strangeness saves it all; even at the distance of decades, this is one strange novel.
November 11, 2019
3.5 Stars
A fun read, but feels restrained compared to his other stuff.
I’m glad this was not my first Terry Southern book. If you are not familiar with his work, please start with something like Blue Movie or Red-Dirt Marijuana. I would hate for someone to pick this up and get the wrong impression of this wonderfully talented writer.
A fun read, but feels restrained compared to his other stuff.
I’m glad this was not my first Terry Southern book. If you are not familiar with his work, please start with something like Blue Movie or Red-Dirt Marijuana. I would hate for someone to pick this up and get the wrong impression of this wonderfully talented writer.
June 25, 2024
The author’s first book, published in 1958. The (supposedly) comic misadventures of Dr. Frederick Eichner, a dermatologist living in Los Angeles.
Boring. Not much happens, especially in the first one hundred pages. Also not funny. The date rape scene is horribly dated and extremely unfunny. The only scene that might elicit a mild chuckle or two is the game show named “What’s My Disease?”
Boring. Not much happens, especially in the first one hundred pages. Also not funny. The date rape scene is horribly dated and extremely unfunny. The only scene that might elicit a mild chuckle or two is the game show named “What’s My Disease?”
August 10, 2021
Almost perfect. Looking for something weird? Buckle up. Double trigger warning.
March 8, 2022
I kept going, thinking the bewildering absurdity would all make sense at the end. Alas, it did not.
August 20, 2022
A nice touch of Kafka
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July 14, 2025“Perhaps there’s more of madness in this world than one can ever know, and power is not infrequently her bedfellow.”
August 31, 2022
This is one of the strangest books I've read in my life. It's like magical realism, but without the surrealism or the poetry: it's completely prosaic. The closest book to which I can compare it is the Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, but with the major difference being that in Master and Margarita there's an explanation for all the strange things that happen - the devil coming to the Earth and causing mischief - whereas in Flash and Filigree there is no explanation: normal-seeming people simply start doing weird things.
That said, it's well-written and entertaining enough to have kept me engaged throughout. I simply never found that the book's weirdness was a negative or distracting feature: it just added to its entertainment value. It's also very funny in parts, as you might expect given that the author co-wrote the screenplay for Dr Strangelove (as well as Easy Rider). A scene involving a game show entitled "What's my Disease?" is laugh-out-loud funny, as is a scene of a man trying to get off with a woman in the back seat of a car at a drive-in cinema in the 1950s.
I enjoyed it, and would recommend it, but I still have no idea what it's really about.
That said, it's well-written and entertaining enough to have kept me engaged throughout. I simply never found that the book's weirdness was a negative or distracting feature: it just added to its entertainment value. It's also very funny in parts, as you might expect given that the author co-wrote the screenplay for Dr Strangelove (as well as Easy Rider). A scene involving a game show entitled "What's my Disease?" is laugh-out-loud funny, as is a scene of a man trying to get off with a woman in the back seat of a car at a drive-in cinema in the 1950s.
I enjoyed it, and would recommend it, but I still have no idea what it's really about.
April 12, 2021
For: Fans of more "summery" noirs and works of paranoid fiction. Reminiscent of Pynchon, Elmore-Leonard's beachy works.
A breakneck absurdist mystery, while perhaps initially trifling, and with a less than respectfully written (and overlong) rape scene, there's something quite gutting in the satirical portrayal of the superficiality of gender - and it's confluence with power. I think I'll do some more thinking on this one, but the following bits drew my attention:
"Most of the girls look so much alike in their whites... that they tend to lose their identities and one is prone to confuse them"
"Perhaps there's more madness in the world than one can ever know, and power is not infrequently her bedfellow"
Combine this with the recurrence of a character in disguise as another gender, and the ominous warning "the doctor isn't telling all he knows" - Eichner of course, being a dermatologist, and I can't help but think that Southern has written a somewhat cryptic exposè. This would certainly be worthy of a close reading with these themes at the fore.
A breakneck absurdist mystery, while perhaps initially trifling, and with a less than respectfully written (and overlong) rape scene, there's something quite gutting in the satirical portrayal of the superficiality of gender - and it's confluence with power. I think I'll do some more thinking on this one, but the following bits drew my attention:
"Most of the girls look so much alike in their whites... that they tend to lose their identities and one is prone to confuse them"
"Perhaps there's more madness in the world than one can ever know, and power is not infrequently her bedfellow"
Combine this with the recurrence of a character in disguise as another gender, and the ominous warning "the doctor isn't telling all he knows" - Eichner of course, being a dermatologist, and I can't help but think that Southern has written a somewhat cryptic exposè. This would certainly be worthy of a close reading with these themes at the fore.
April 10, 2013
I wish there was a 4.5 star button!
As a teenager I loved this book or loved the notion of it. The chapter patterning where the scene is set in standard pulp novel and then develops in farce
Maybe it's time to reread but it left a huge impression on me and Southern's style seems to be echoed in numerous films, perhaps he'd not the progenitor of this style, Joyce's extravagant descriptions in Ulysses may have paved the road for Southern but nonetheless, I loved the way he built a sterotypical environment and then squashed it by the end of the chapter...
As a teenager I loved this book or loved the notion of it. The chapter patterning where the scene is set in standard pulp novel and then develops in farce
Maybe it's time to reread but it left a huge impression on me and Southern's style seems to be echoed in numerous films, perhaps he'd not the progenitor of this style, Joyce's extravagant descriptions in Ulysses may have paved the road for Southern but nonetheless, I loved the way he built a sterotypical environment and then squashed it by the end of the chapter...
October 8, 2014
Completely worthless novel that I would have abandoned had it not been the only thing I had with me while hanging out in a hospital waiting room (and I only took it along because it was the smallest book I currently was reading) . . . had read about 20 pages some time ago and thought it pretty weird then.
Disappointing because I was expecting something humorous from Terry Southern. Guess I was wrong! Just weird, made little sense, and had no point that I can see. I guess there's a plot but no point to it, either. I can see this as a VERY bad movie.
Disappointing because I was expecting something humorous from Terry Southern. Guess I was wrong! Just weird, made little sense, and had no point that I can see. I guess there's a plot but no point to it, either. I can see this as a VERY bad movie.
May 13, 2008
Not quite put together satisfyingly, not even in a po-mo sort of way (& I don't think he was going for that), this was still worthwhile & definitely makes me want to read more Southern. Short story collection, I'm looking at you.
April 9, 2008
Stylistically interesting, but pales in comparison to its common companion piece, The Magic Christian.
May 12, 2008
Southern's first novel is still a winner, with great characters, elegant prose, and thematic elements that remind me a great deal of Nabokov.
May 21, 2010
Eh. I guess it's hilarious.
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April 9, 2008this is a great book and i recommend it to everyone
April 12, 2016
Weird. I like weird. Weird is good.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews