Books: Highbrow Smorgasbord

STORIES IN THE MODERN MANNER (282 pp.)—Edited by Philip Rahv and William Phillips—Avon (35¢).

The publishers of Avon Books (price range: 25¢ to 35¢) sell more than 20 million, copies a year, chiefly by serving up westerns, whodunits and the kind of boy-meets-girl story that can be illustrated by a ripe cheesecake jacket. Occasionally, however, Avon offers a change of diet, and its latest, Stories in the Modern Manner, is an adventure in highbrow smorgasbord: 14 short stories and a one-act play from the literary bimonthly, Partisan Review. The editors never explain what the tag "modern manner" means, but most of these...