Books: Lifeless Living

TOMORROW AND YESTERDAY (250 pp.)—Heinrlch Boll—Criterion ($2.50).

Periodically, eleven-year-old Martin Bach is catechized by his grandmother. "Your father fell in action, didn't he?" "Yes." "What does it mean—fell in action?" "Killed in the war. Shot." "Where?" "Near Kalinovka." . . . "What is the name of the man responsible for your father's death?" "Gaseler." "Repeat the name." "Gaseler." "Once more." "Gaseler." "Do you know what it means to deprive a child of his father?" "Yes."

Martin knows—and so does his best friend Heinrich, whose father was also killed on the Eastern front. It meant that Father was replaced by an "uncle." Sometimes the...