Publisher's Weekly
Clever anachronisms and mock-Arthurian diction mark this madcap, absurdist 20th-century parable, in which Barthelme transposes King Arthur and his Round Table to 1940s England under Nazi bombardment. (May)

Library Journal
The King is Arthur himself, even though Barthelme's brief novel is set during World War II. As ''real'' battles rage far offstage, the Knights of the Round Table are busy ''rushing and riding, foining and striking.'' Meanwhile, Lord Haw-Haw keeps the populace abreast of Guinevere's infidelities in his broadcasts from Berlin. Sad to say, the late Barthelme doesn't do much with Arthur. The irony is tired, the whimsy facile, the language numbing in its archaic banality: ''Yonder knights hurtle together like rams to bear either other down!'' Faithful readers of Barthelme may appreciate The King ; others will wonder whether it would have seen publication without his name attached.-- Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.