Books: Mixed Fiction

THE RIGHT TO AN ANSWER, by Anthony Burgess (255 pp.; Norton: $3.95), is a fictional sermon written in the form of a comic novel. It reveals that at 20, the question is apt to be: "What does it all mean?" At 30, it is more likely: "Is this all there is?" If at 40 or so, the questioner still has received no reply, he usually provides his own answers—to the first question a smile, to the second a nod. But British Author Burgess is neither a smiler nor a nodder. At 43 he is still banging noisily on God's door, insisting...

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