Herman Melville in Heaven is, at first glance, the story of a boy, a lost book, and his search to recover it. In fact, Salvatore Tarnmoor's novel-called a romance by its editor, Bernard Rosenthal-is significantly more. Young Billy may be searching for a magical book, but the purpose of his lifelong quest is to discover himself, his raison d' tre. Whether the people he meets along the way tell plausible stories is not the issue; what matters is that...