Books: Importance of Being Evelyn

THE FOXGLOVE SAGA (252 pp.)—Auberon Waugh—Simon & Schuster ($3.95).

"You are going to suffer a lot of irritation," wrote Graham Greene to the author, "when reviewers compare you to Evelyn." The reader turning to this novel is likely to suffer not so much irritation as a double take: the man staring from the dust jacket is the image of young Evelyn Waugh; the style and subject matter belong to Evelyn Waugh. But the author's name is Auberon, and he is 22 instead of 57.

Other literary sons—John Phillips Marquand, Nathaniel Benchley, Klaus Mann —have tried...