KEITH COUNTY JOURNAL
by John Janovy Jr.
St. Martin's Press; 210 pages; $8.95
Even before publication, this journal had assumed a near legendary character. John Janovy Jr., a University of Nebraska parasitologist, was a literary unknown. His manuscript, which deals with such unprepossessing subjects as snails and the parasites that reside in their innards, arrived at the office unsolicited. Usually, such "over-the-transom" offerings are ignored. But something persuaded an editor to take a quick look at this one "just in case." The decision was the literary equivalent of finding a diamond in a stream bed.
Keith County Journal, a collection of essays about desolate...