Books in Brief

The Way We Live Now, by Warren Miller (Little, Brown, $4.00). The veteran of a shot marriage, Lionel Aldridge returns to those benefits and disillusionments which go with demobilized freedom. Old ties come loose in Lionel’s unregimented world, where love is free and human will is not. “Life uses us,” explained Nicky, a fellow vet. “There is no villain, Lion. There is only life.” Under this white sheet of capitulation, Lionel and his buddies retreat from one bed to another, taking cover from responsibility. Lionel mourns for sadness itself, a “tradition or an illusion. I’ve forgotten which.” But so has the author, and regrettably his figures read more like statistics in a glorified Kinsey Report.

J. L. WEIL

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The Way We Live Now, by Warren Miller (Little, Brown, $4.00). The veteran of a shot marriage, Lionel Aldridge returns to those benefits and disillusionments which go with demobilized freedom. Old ties come loose in Lionel’s unregimented world, where love is free and human will is not. “Life uses us,” explained Nicky, a fellow vet. “There is no villain, Lion. There is only life.” Under this white sheet of capitulation, Lionel and his buddies retreat from one bed to another, taking cover from responsibility. Lionel mourns for sadness itself, a “tradition or an illusion. I’ve forgotten which.” But so has the author, and regrettably his figures read more like statistics in a glorified Kinsey Report.

J. L. WEIL