Books: On the Soft Side

THE CIRCUS IN THE ATTIC—Roberf Penn Warren—Harcourt, Brace ($3).

A year and a half ago, when Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize novel All the King's Men appeared, critics acclaimed the pace and excellence of its prose and drama, compared Author Warren to William Faulkner and Thomas Wolfe. Now, Author Warren has followed up his novel with selections from his shorter fiction, including two novelettes and twelve short stories. They were written during the last 17 years, and readers who expect them to be an advance on their distinguished predecessor will find, instead, that they are the earlier miss-hits of a still immature...