Books: The Brides of Sometime

A FINE FRENZY (219 pp.)—Noel Woodin—Knopf (paperbound, $1.65).

Mindful that lots of people (some of whom probably read) take vacations in Florida at this time of year, Knopf has issued a volume of hot-weather reading.

In the long run, Author Woodin's novel may be no more effective than a gin and tonic, but at the moment of consumption the sensation is pleasant.

Hero Julian Starke is a poet and a Briton and, consequently, unemployable —"too clever for an executive position, too vague for trade, and too feeble to shift cement bags." He has worked...