With two serious, well-received, and distinctly different novels published before his thirtieth birthday, Ben Greer has already proved himself the exception to a number of cliches of our times, truisms so generally accepted that they have almost the force of guidelines if not law. At a time when serious fiction is in serious trouble and when it is probably more difficult for a beginning novelist to find a publisher than any time earlier in this century, Greer has simply written his novels and seen them published with reasonable promptness and in the sequence of his writing them. This latter fact is rarer than many critics and scholars of contemporary literature may realize. A surprising number of our newer writers have written several novels before one of them, usually the last one to be completed, was published. With some success and attention they can eventually see the earlier work...