TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : AUDIOCASSETTES

“Stanley and the Women.” Books on Tape (six cassettes; nine hours). Kingsley Amis, whose early works, “Lucky Jim” and “That Uncertain Feeling,” set a new level for the novel of comic observation in postwar Britain, has seemed to grow more misanthropic with the passing years. Stanley is a hard-boozing newspaper ad man with a wife, an unpleasant ex-wife and assorted mistresses. He also has a son drowning in schizophrenia and possibly beyond saving. The wit has become a drone of sarcastic side comment and you look in vain for sympathy from or for anyone in sight, except the lad. A novel of weary despair, given a matter-of-fact reading by Richard Green. Information: (800) 626-3333.