Books Second novels are the opposite of second marriages. But it is decidedly more sprawling, complex, and multifaceted than its taut predecessor, and is told mainly from the point of view of a middle-aged classics professor, with all the quirky allusiveness that stance implies. The psychological aftermath of this tragedy lands various family members in an asylum, a nunnery, and several spectacularly inappropriate beds. In his seven-year orgy of despair, Woody loses his wife, his house, and his job, winding up in Bologna testifying against his daughter's killers, supporting himself by singing blues at an osteria. His wife and daughters indulge in equally bizarre, if less colorful, behavior.
Progress is excruciatingly slow.
Yet this novel is not at all depressing, but stimulating and inspiring. They behave with a tragicomic stoicism utterly foreign to characters in recent recovery novels. These scenes constitute the novel's most entertaining layer, a savage satire on political correctness. Indeed, all the characters ruminate on the philosophical ramifications of their actions. This is unapologetically a novel of ideas, with detailed discussions of art, politics, music, sexuality, evil, fate, food, the behavior of bats, and theories of chaos.