Books: Quixote in the Kitchen

REINHART'S WOMEN by Thomas Berger; Delacorte; 295 pages; $13.95

In their latest outings, the three on going heroes of note in American fiction have succeeded in a variety of styles. Philip Roth's Nathan Zuckerman (Zuckerman Unbound) is famous; Updike's Harry Angstrom (Rabbit Is Rich) shuttles prosperously from Toyota dealership to marriage bed; and Thomas Berger's hefty and tenuous moralist, Carlo Reinhart, now 54, has risen above his customary blundering to become an Ohio Quixote tilting at Cuisinarts. Indeed, the redoubtable lummox actually triumphs over fate, women and his amazing girth.

In his eleventh novel—the...

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