Books: The Perdition of Marius

THE CLOSED HARBOR (315 pp.)—James Hanley—Horizon ($3.50).

If critics' raves paid their way in royalties, a 52-year-old Irishman named James Hanley might well be one of the richest authors alive. When his novel, The Closed Harbor, appeared in Britain last year, Fellow Novelist Henry Green said of Hanley: "He is far and away the best writer of the sea and of seafaring men since Conrad, and indeed in my opinion is much superior to him." Said the Times Literary Supplement: "[One of his] greatest achievements—and of their kind there are none superior." This is a fair sample of what the critics have...