Evan S. Connell, Jr. would probably rank today as the most important American novelist if critical reception were the sole criterion for determining the reputation of a writer. But the fact is that though his books have been widely reviewed and highly praised he has yet to be accorded the renown of some of his contemporaries. Reasons for this comparative obscurity are not hard to find. For one thing, he has never sought the limelight; his reputation rests on his books alone, unaided by the machinations of public relations men. For another thing, his fiction is neither so studiously obscure nor so allusive as to require the exegetical analysis that comes, as a matter of course, with being "difficult"-- which is not to say that either his matter or his manner is of the sort to appeal to the average reader. As one critic remarked, Connell is...