Examines a theme in literature: the struggle for the semblance of inner freedom. Great literature, the author believes, is not the record of the achievement but of the effort. She explores the work of V S Naipaul, James Baldwin, George Gissing, Randall Jarrell, H G Wells, Loren Eiseley, Allen Ginsberg, Hayden Carruth, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth.