BOOK REVIEW

• Pages: 04

GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS IN A NUTSHELL, 1979*

W. Soel Keyes,"* Government Contmcts m a .Vutshell. St. Paul. Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1979. Pp. xliv, 423. Price: 57.95. Paperback. Publisher's address: West Publ. Co., 50 W. Kellogg Blvd., P.O. Box 3526, St. Paul, MN 55166.

Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Robel? .M. Nutti*^

Writers in the field of government contracts abound and proliferate. They have waxed eloquent in articles, seholarly in texts or hornbooks, and simplistic m surveys which have purported to exhaust the subject-"Everything you ever wanted to know . . ."

Professor Keyes admits that much has been written an the subject of government contracts; but, he says, no single volume has yet met the needs of those who want B balanced book-broad enough to interest those who want a survey, yet detailed enough to treat the subject matter properly. "Accordingly, a comprehensive single volume on Government Contracts appears to be needed. Neither treatment of every sub area or the resolution of all the conflicting points of view is possible, but critical

*Thisaorklrnoted inPublicolions R~Eeii.~dandBngny.~ol~dafpage

119aifhepre~enf

**Pmferior of Law and Dlrsetor of Clinical Law at the Pepperdine Uniiersify Sehwl \DIYme.of Lam. hlahbu, Califamin

*'*Judge AdvoeaLe Generah Corps United Stares Army Lieutenant Colonel Xvtf LQchlef of the Labor and Civian Peraonnel Law Ofice. under the Amsfant Judge Advmsre General for CI\I~

Law. at the Pantapan, Wuhmgfon, D C He w&l deputy cammandsnf and director of Lhe Academic Department, TJAGSA, Charloltesviile, Vrgmla. 197940,and was chid of the Confrart Law Divrrmn. TJAGSA, from 1916 to 1979

Lieutenant Colonel Kuft IS ea-author. with Mqor Gary L Hophnr, oi The Anh Defi-ciiiry Art (Remsed Slatules 96791 and Pimdqng Frderol Canlracfs. An Annlysu. I Mil L Rev SI l197S), B book re vie^, published at Bs Md L Rev 13s 119801, and two utlcles pvbbshed m Tbs A m y Lawyer. July I978 at 15, and December 1978 et 8

examination of all pnneipal areas may prove helpful at this time."' The question is, has Professor Keyes reached this goal in his "nutshell"?

Even; book should have a plot, even "on-fiction. Something should tease the mind. A book should entice its reader as a lure entices a fish. In the area of government contracts, this presents a real challenge. But, as in all fields of law, government contracts provides an ample number of "truth is stranger than fiction" cases to make fun reading with plenty of scholastic...