BY NATURE FREE

Intelligent, observant, honest, this is a holding story of one man's attempt to find security in himself, his marriage, his beliefs. It's an unusually good first novel, thoughtful and convincing, a book for intelligent reading, part psychological, part ideological. In a Cleveland suburb lives Philip Blair with a crippled father and his wife. Clerking in a small time job by day, working on an overambitious book by night to compensate for his sense of futility, Philip has become increasingly touchy, self-conscious, bitter. His moods -- and the knowledge they can have no child to replace the one they lost -- have saddened his wife, Larry. The return of a younger brother, Harvey, after an absence of seven years, intensifies the situation in the family. With easy charm, assurance and rotten principles, Harvey makes a play for Larry. Philip lets things drag on until a series of hard hits straighten him out, and he faces life courageously. Warning-PL.