Books: Medium Rare

WELCOME TO THE CITY—Irwin Shaw—Random House ($2).

One of the most gifted U.S. short-story writers, Irwin Shaw is also one of the most successful. All but one of the 20 stories in this volume are collected from The New Yorker, Story, Harper's Bazaar and other magazines. Some of the best:

>The Eighty-Yard Run is a kindly study of the bewildered Young Republican of the early '30s with perceptive notes on one type of hopeless marriage.

> In Main Currents of American Thought a young radio hack who wants to do serious work trembles in a familiar...