Professor Romeo

Bernays ( Growing Up Rich ) has drawn an instantly familiar character inJake Barker, a philandering Harvard professor whose rise and fall is sharply delineated here. The author of a ``trailblazing bestseller about gender differentiation,'' Jake, ironically, cannot resist young flesh and has no regard for the consequences of his affairs. Despite a chaotic personal life, he has had a successful career but, always ``tainted by weakness, plagued by wayward hungers,'' he has run the risk of losing everything. In fact, when Jake ischarged with sexual harassment, he discovers that his campus nickname has become ``Professor Romeo.'' The tribunal is unfortunately led by an embittered ex-lover, and Jake knows he is doomed. ``Once you have forfeited your job, your reputation, your standing in society, your amour propre, and the privilege of using the Harvard athletic facilities, what else could be takenfrom you that mattered?'' Bernayshas in this bitterly ironic story captured many essential truths about the political and moral issues inside a university. Finely crafted prose makes it possible for readers to sympathizewith a hero who is a first-class scoundrel. (July)