Books: The Courage to Be

THE MARTYRED by Richard E. Kim. 316 pages. Braziller. $4.50.

The saints of modern fiction are not the God-drunk but the nonbelievers— men racked with doubt but cursed with the will to survive. They find their strength not in faith but in despair, their heroism in acknowledging the prospect of their own extinction.

Such a man is the hero of this somber and remorseless first novel. As an examination of the theme, it can stand with the works of Camus, by whom it was inspired and to whom it is dedicated.

Twelve Who Died....

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