After the Landslide

WHEN THE MOUNTAIN FELL (221 pp.)—Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, translated by Sarah Fisher Scoff—Pantheon ($2.50).

The Book-of-the-Month Club advertises meritorious and meretricious books in the same loud tone of voice. To the club's 900,000 members, judgments like "powerful," "moving," "noble," "haunting" must by now have the same dull ring as "colossal" has for moviegoers. When the Mountain Fell, the club's co-choice for October, is promoted with all these words. But for the first time in many a month, they are not entirely irrelevant.

Readers who are accustomed to febrile, jerky best-sellers will find When...