Books: Short Bites

THE MAN WHO WAS LOVED (234 pp.) —James Stern—Harcourt, Brace ($3).

In Britain, where craftsmanlike novelists are almost as common as rooks at a mowing, careful readers watch for a rarer bird—the writer of first-rate short stories. In 1932 a fine specimen came along. James Stern, a young Irishman, published some stories about South Africa, where he had lived for a while, in a book called The Heartless Land. In 1938 he brought out another collection, Something Wrong. British critics had high praise for both volumes; only the first was published in the U.S., in a small edition. Said Author Christopher...