A Wrestling Season

When Trover Kleeve isn't busy defending the rights of pornographers, he expends time and money buying everything he can lay his fevered hands on. The jumble that accumulates at his Pennsylvania homestead includes a fleet of unroadworthy cars, a mound of mountaineering equipment and a stack of underwear so garish it brings a blush to the cheeks of his long-suffering wife, Louise. The Kleeve children are a study in opposites: tenderhearted Michael is a high-school wrestling champ, while his sister, Mighty, strides furiously through life with the foul mouth and temper of a Marine drill sergeant. Since Stark ( The Dealer's Yard and Other Stories does not develop much of a plot, her first novel is an unfocused conglomeration of murky family scenes woven loosely around Michael's wrestling season. A handful of home truths shines through, but the infinitely childish Trover is pure caricature as he skitters from one petulant rampage to the next and, for all their zany quirks, the Kleeves prove unengaging over the long haul. First serial to the Atlantic. (January 21)