The Satyr

DeMaria's ( Carnival of Angels ) darkly comic fourth novel, first published 20 years ago, is a headlong blend of Laurence Sterne and Philip Roth. Journal entries set forth 23 days in the bizarre life of Marc McCann, a 35-year-old textbook editor who harbors more than a few powerful urges. Among them are his intention to marry a 20-year-old naif against the wishes of his domineering mother, Gertrude; his impulse to fornicate with every woman who comes into view; and his overwhelming desire to murder Gertrude when her meddling becomes serious. DeMaria has fashioned a terrifying and often terrifyingly funny character (``For a few minutes, I was a ghost in a convent passing through stone walls into the secret rites of naked nuns, but . . . I suddenly remembered that I was expected at Uncle Phil's for dinner''), and his fierce imagination perfectly charts the progress of compulsion. As McCann journeys toward the ideal plan for matricide, sex and violence mingle unsettlingly in his thoughts. But, given anything short of an insatiable appetite for black humor, the experience of being trapped in a madman's mind becomes claustrophobic, however cleverly conveyed and constructed. (July)