In Victorian times the high middle ground of literature may have been overcrowded. In recent years it has been almost deserted, as writers of literary ambition fled in terror lest they be tainted by its association with some need for moral force and good sense. But Judith Guest, who enjoyed considerable success with her first novel, "Ordinary People," has with "Second Heaven" again deservedly claimed this middle ground for her own.

Guest is a writer whose particular talent is to articulate the concerns and interests of, well, ordinary people. She describes with sympathy those who, for the most part, live or aspire to live on that high middle ground where good and evil do struggle, where happiness is not expected to come easily, and love is a giving, not a taking.

The main characters are a trio of two adults and an adolescent, whose lives resemble three lines...