THE END OF THE ROAD (230 pp.)John BarfhDoubleday ($3.95).
"Where the hell else but in America could you have a cheerful nihilism?" asks a leading character in this highly diverting book, which is a comedy with a tragic ending and, occasionally, a farce with a philosophical meaning. The character who asks the question is Joe Morgan, a history teacher at Wicomico State Teachers College, who has taught himself to "say good-by to objective values." He believes that energy is "what makes the difference between American pragmatism and French existentialism."
Joe has energy all right;...