THE SECOND HAPPIEST DAY (409 pp )John PhillipsHarper ($3.75).
John Marquand's fellow Book-of-the-Month Club judges were not surprised when he got up and walked out of the meeting. His departure was an act of principle. For the book about to be discussed (and chosen) was The Second Happiest Day, by a young (28) first novelist named John Phillips but better known to the judges as John Marquand Jr.
Without the B-O-M accolade (and the jacket reminder that Phillips is really Marquand Jr.), the book might have been noted only as a mildly wry comedy of bad manners that borrows much of its...
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