A masterful literary novel. If you can make it through the first chapter, you will be rewarded with the rest of the book. I almost gave up on the first chapter, almost threw the book in the trash (I only paid $1.95 for it at the used bookstore!), but I continued, just to see if it was more of the same, and was pleasently surprised to find a masterpiece of fiction in the second chapter. Everything is handled perfectly, from the viewpoint of a teenage boy getting up and going to school, while observing his family, and especially his father. It's an excellent model to study.
The rest of the book has more of those moments, interspersed with the "Greek Mythology" episodes. The allegory is Chiron and Prometheus, with the father being Chiron and the son Prometheus. I would almost like to see the book without the allegory, without the Greek mythology sections, just to see if it would be successful. I'm sure it's erudite and scholarly, but I can't help but wonder if it is really needed.
This is a literary novel, so if you are looking for plot, you won't find it. Now that I have read both Updike and Wolf, the famous feuders, I have to say that Updike has the edge!
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