Books: Below Sea Level

OLD HAVEN—David Cornel Dejong— Houghton Mifflin ($2.50).

THE HOUSE OF TAVELINCK—Jo van Ammers-Küller—Farrar & Rinehart ($3).

Two hundred years after the flood of British sea power drowned Holland as a first-class nation, hardworking, stubborn Dutchmen have at least succeeded in reclaiming a well-diked reputation as leading producers of tulips and cheese: But Dutch literature, which even at its high point, in the time of Erasmus and Spinoza, was always Holland's lowest point below sea level, remains almost wholly unreclaimed. Last week two Dutch novels stood out as new patches of dry land....