Books: Figures in the Foreground

THE CRACK IN THE COLUMN (370 pp.] —George Weller—Random House ($3).

As a foreign correspondent of the Chicago Daily News, George Weller watched the British retreat from Greece in 1941. When the British returned in 1944, so did Weller; like many another correspondent, he developed a deep affection for the country. The Crack in the Column, an admirably objective novel beginning in the days of the Nazi occupation and ending with the outbreak of civil war, is the product of George Weller's fondness for Greece and its hard-pressed people.

Actually, his story is too...