When observing the variety of traditional fictional forms he chooses to use, and how reading one of his novels does not prepare one for the reading of any other ((citation)): Empty citation (help), Thomas Berger ( . . .)
" . . . Berger easily ranks among the most accomplished novelists since the end of World War II, and his writing seems sure to earn him a lasting place in American letters. His novels have established him as not only one of our most energetic writers but also one of the most unpredictable, since no two of his books seem, at first glance, to have much in common." Landon, 1989, p. 1
"On the subject of whether my work is comic or not, I can only say that my intention is to tell a straightforward story for my own entertainment. Surely there are funny passages, but my purpose is not to inspire laughter except incidentally. What I dislike about being called a 'comic novelist' is that reviewers who don't like my books find it too convenient to condemn them for not being funny enough." Madden, 1995, p. 153
"I should like the reader to be aware that a book of mine is written in the English language, which I love with all my heart and write to the best of my ability and with the most honorable of intentions - which is to say, I am peddling no quackery, masking no intent to tyrannize, and asking nobody's pity." Schickel 1980 (from Landon 1989, p. 11)
"I have all my life listened to the radio regularly, beginning in it's golden age, the 1930's. And I don't have to remind you of my interest in sound, particularly that of human speech. In fact a good many of my sentences take their pretext from the sound of a certain word." Landon, 1989, p. 8
Matters of definition, false accusations and false admissions
"There is a certain type of scene that no writer does better than Mr. Berger: the depiction of the instant when the most routine social encounter becomes - suddenly and without provocation or warning - pure hell; the simplest exchange of banalities turns sour, then surly, then rancorous, then violent." Madden, 1995?