American Appetites

Joyce Carol Oates. Harper Perennial, $12.5 (340pp) ISBN 978-0-06-097278-3

A drunken quarrel over suspected infidelity provokes a brawl and the fatal injury of a food writer. According to PW , this is ``a zippy story about successful lives dramatically altered by one sudden and inexplicable lapse of judgment.'' (Jan.)

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