The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B

by J. P. Donleavy. Delacorte, $6.95. Mr. Donleavy’s idiosyncratic style, his wickedly funny dialogue, and his scenes of preposterous domestic slapstick very nearly obscure the fact that his plot is vaporish Edwardian sentimentality about a poor little rich boy who suffers from being irresistible to women. Why worry about the framework when the trimmings are so amusing?