Probably best known for his picaresque novel Little Big Man and the subsequent film by Arthur Penn, Berger explored and manipulated many genres of fiction throughout his career, including the crime novel, the hard-boiled detective story, science fiction, the utopian novel, plus re-workings of classical mythology, Arthurian legend, and the survival adventure.

[1] Berger's biting wit led many reviewers to refer to him as a satirist or "comic" novelist, descriptions he preferred to reject.

[2] His admirers often bemoaned that his talent and achievement were underappreciated, in view of his versatility across many forms of fiction, his precise use of language, and his probing intelligence.

He then pursued graduate work in English at Columbia University, leaving his thesis unfinished to enroll in the writer's workshop at the New School for Social Research.

Berger later became a copy editor at Popular Science Monthly, and performed freelance editing during the early years of his writing career.

Although he would occasionally put his hand to a short story, play, or non-fiction article (including a stint as film critic for Esquire), Berger preferred the long narrative form of the novel, and produced a steady run of critically acclaimed books throughout his career.

Reinhart's Women won Berger an Ohioana Book Award, and he was a 1984 Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Feud.