Books: Thirteen Deaths

AWAKE AND REHEARSE—Louis Bromfield—Stokes ($2.50).

Essence of the Midwest was Author Bromfield's best book (The Green Bay Tree). Accurately New England was his Pulitzer Prize novel (Early Autumn). Awake and Rehearse includes a third sort of American, the Henry James-Edith Wharton expatriate variety. Bubbling over with abundance of "material," Author Bromfield has been praised for having much to say, blamed for saying it hastily in slovenly prose. This time he says less, says it better. Awake and Rehearse is a macabre title for a group of 13 stories (four are new; nine...