“The art pundit, Boris Jack, would be in evidence no doubt, along with those rival art reviewers for the two major dailies, Polly Glot and Polly Nana, who resented each other not because of any difference in their view of art but because readers generally lumped them together as “The Parrots.”

The Goldfish That Exploded. Mary Beth Knechtel. (Arsenal Pulp Press)