Books: Odd But Human

ALL FALL DOWN (272 pp.)—James Leo Herlihy—Dutton ($3.95).

For some adolescent reason that The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield would have understood, Clint Williams ponders suicide. "Of course, if I end up in some lousy place like Hell," he reflects in his diary, "it would be a miserable mistake. The thing I am gambling on is that after death people become automatically ghosts, and possess thereby complete freedom of movement. ADVANTAGES: I could follow Berry-berry around from place to place."

Both Clint—who decides against becoming a ghost, after all—and his roving older brother, Berry-berry, are members of the Williams family,...