Devil at Home

As terminally ill world-health expert Dr. Carl Mast accepts the Nobel Peace Prize, he reveals that he is also Nazi war criminal Kasper Heislinger, casually claiming that ""great works, whether for good or evil, are not really so earthshaking.'' Fleeing international authorities after the ensuing uproar, Mast takes shelter with Griselda Nadelmann, a graduate student and part-time prostitute whose thesis topic, ``The Phenomenology of Distinction,'' allows her to rationalize her interest in Mast/Heislinger. Conflicts set in, however, when she becomes passionately involved with Mordecai Gerbler, an Israeli agent on Heislinger's trail. Lange's sixth novel (after Defiance and Red Snow is an ambitious and provocative experiment, but the subject he undertakes is too complex for the sophomoric insouciance of his protagonist and his semi-omniscient narrator. In consequence, the tale often elicits simple impatience from the reader as much as thought or deep emotion. (March 25)