YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE (783 pp.)Herman WoukDoubleday ($7.95).
The morality of the biographical novel as practiced by Somerset Maugham (Gauguin is called Strickland) and Irving Stone (Van Gogh is called Van Gogh) is shaky but probably defensible; the gross offense of distorting a man's life can be justified to some extent if it helps the novelist to capture the quality of the man's spirit. But there is no literary or historical justification for the cynical trespass Herman Wouk has committed in Youngblood Hawke. It is not merely a distortion; it is an act of violence.
The victim is Thomas Wolfe. Wouk, respected as the storyteller...