THE CENTER OF THE STAGE (290 pp.)Gerald SykesFarrar, Straus & Young ($3).
Dr. David Holderness, M.D., was no Ulysseshe was just a more or less preoccupied research man returning to the U.S. after a long stay abroad, and wondering how to pick up the threads of his marriage. In a way, his son Pete reflected, the situation did resemble the old Greek story: "Enigmatic Mother, Absent Father, Disagreeable Suitors."
Carlotta, the Enigmatic Mother, was a frisky and fashionable actress living a life of frantic emptiness. And the Disagreeable Suitors were a passel of New York busybodies, creatures on the make. From...