Books: Eddies of Thought

THE MARQUISE WENT OUT AT FIVE (311 pp.)—Claude Mauriac—Braziller ($4.95).

Quick color in the muddled crowd: a pretty girl in tight blue pants runs at top speed through the Paris square and disappears. Her passage stirs eddies of emotion. For a traffic policeman boredom dissipates briefly; he lusts sharply and happily. A woman sneers contemptuously; obviously the girl is a slut, because quite apparently she is wearing no brassiere. A plainclothes detective on a stake-out forgets his ambush to gawk; an aging homosexual glances at the girl in envy; a bookstore owner obsessed...