Though Laura Hobson, who wrote "Gentleman's Agreement," is undoubtedly a celebrity in her own right, there is nothing autobiographical in ["The Celebrity"], her fourth—and perhaps her best—novel. The story centers on the selection of "The Good World," a novel by the brother of her title character, by a book club "bigger than the Literary Guild and the Book-of-the-Month Club," and of what follows the bestowal of such an honor…. [We are] given a detailed and intriguing account of the effect of the work's sudden success on Gregory Johns, who wrote it, on his brother Thornton, on their wives, on the book's publishers and their employees, and on a number of others of varying consanguinity.

Gregory, though momentarily shaken by the brouhaha attendant on the production of a best seller, is the only one to emerge from the experience substantially unchanged. The others are scarred beyond repair...