LOOKING FOR MISTER GOODBAR

You may remember the actual story on which this novel is based--it won't matter if you don't--one of those inescapable nocturnal New York horror stories about the schoolteacher who seemed to live an irreproachable life until she was found murdered by one of the men she used to pick up and take home. Until this last one, having no other place to go for a few hours sleep, killed her. Judith Rossner, in her strongest book to date, fills in, fills out, the story of Teresa Dunn who always felt she was the reject in a narrow, Irish-Catholic family--because of more than her physical handicap (a back operation which left her with a long scar and a slight limp as well as a phobic fear of doctors and hospitals). Overlooked and undiscovered until a professor at CCNY taught her a little about sex, less about love, and just enough to leave her Looking for Mister Goodbar on nights when she was sexually restless and frequented the local hangout--also enough to leave her still fuller of guilt and contrition after the rampantly abusive Tony and after James, much too religious, too devoted, too nice, and too late. Judith Rossner (Nine Months in the Life of an Old Maid, etc.) is an accomplished writer who commands your exclusive attention--her book seems all too true to life and close to more than one kind of death. Watch for Mister Goodbar--you'll have been there.