Article: A Cabinet of Curiosities, Balm for a Mourner's Grief.(Arts&Entertainment)

Byline: Robert Gottlieb

A Book of Reasons, by John Vernon. Houghton Mifflin, 272 pages, $23.

Your brother, older than you by 15 years, has died. He was a recluse, one of those strange people who manage to live in the world yet not be of it, a man comfortable communicating with others only over his radio transmitter-no wife, no close connections, ill at ease even with you (and you with him). A few years ago he abandoned his derelict house in New Hampshire and moved in with your elderly mother-your father is in a nursing home. Now you have inherited everything-house, ham radio equipment, guilt. Why was your brother Paul's life so unhappily barren while ...

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