Recent Books: Fiction

THE ISLANDS—Gerald Warner Brace— Putnam ($2.50). Readable biographic novel of a seafaring Maine lad whom a wealthy Boston spinster adopts, polishes, pushes through Harvard and almost into an unfortunate marriage. Author Brace does not quite succeed in making his taciturn hero as appealing as the more articulate, minor characters.

CAGE ME A PEACOCK—Noel Langley— Morrow ($2.50). The dead hand of the late Thorne Smith lies clammily on Author Langley's pages. Supposedly an uproariously racy revamping of the legend of Lucrece, its rowdiness is no louder than Thorne Smith's, its dreary humor not...