A Death in the Family

THE HUMAN SEASON (192 pp.)--Edward Lewis Wallant--Harcourt, Brace ($3.75).

First novels tend so often to be the efforts of young men with more feeling than talent, and more talent than control, that the appearance of a new writer whose viewpoint is mature and who knows how to say exactly what he means is something of a literary event. Author Wallant. 34, is such a writer. His first book deals skillfully with an unlikely subject--the grief of a 59-year-old plumber after the sudden death of his wife.

Brief, well-structured and without bravura effects, Wallant's novel compresses whole chapters about the sorrowing man and his marriage into a few sentences. Plumber Joe Berman, the hero, packs a quarter-century into a single moment of nostalgia as he daydreams about his wife on their 25th anniversary: "He knew the little collapses of her body, the age-ugly folds and wrinkles, and he loved and revered her all the more for the neat, attractive exterior she was still capable of. He was her proud ally in the public appearance."

His observations untainted by sentimentality, Wallant follows every step of Berman's descent into melancholia. His eye and ear, as he tells of Berman's deterioration, are so good that time after time readers may experience the discomforting shock of self surprised. At first the plumber's grief seems simple--inward weeping set off by a breath of perfume from a bathroom cabinet, or the sudden spaciousness of his bed. Then, wallowing in his sadness, Berman turns on everyone who offers comfort. Even his married daughter, who tries to mother him, is stung by his quick, aimless angers, his sullen preference for the inanities of television instead of the company of friends and family. And though Berman himself is bewildered, he has no words with which to explain, no grace with which to apologize. He begins to rage against God. Toward the end of his long season in hell, he finally comes to believe that he is raging against nothing, and then he is most truly alone.

In the end, the author allows his hero only the beginnings of resignation. Wallant's book is a tour de force: what might seem a hopeless tale impresses by the clarity of its compassion.

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