SING ME NO LOVE SONGS I'LL SAY YOU NO PRAYERS: SELECTED STORIES. Rooke, Leon. New York, Ecco Press, c1984. 290pp, cloth, $22.95, ISBN 0-88001-036-3. Distributed by General Publishing. CIP Grades 12 and up Reviewed by Margaret MacLean Volume 13 Number 1 1985 January I'm not one to leave a book unfinished, but with this one, I preferred to get out the ironing board, wash the windows, anything but read it. Rooke may be a lovely man, but he writes a mean book. It is racist and sexist, and clothed in such excellent craftsmanship that one may be lulled into thinking it is great literature; then again, it may be great literature with a mean theme, although I don't think so. There are sixteen stories; I read eleven. There is one theme: life is brutish, short . . . .you know the rest. If you like Norman Mailer, go ahead and read Rooke. An astute reviewer of my acquaintance put the lid on Norman Mailer for me with the comment: "It is time someone took away his pen." There is a lot of great fiction, new and old, to read. I shall not give much of my time to reading Leon Rooke unless someone can convince me of a value I missed in reviewing this selection. Margaret MacLean, Central Technical School, Toronto, Ont.