At thirty, Robert Markel can manage, at best, an ironic relationship with himself. He is a successful drama critic who had once hoped to create powerful original work for the theater. As the novel opens, he stares at himself in the mirror and suppresses an impulse to strike the sneering face that confronts him. His frustrations lead him to commit a serious breach of professional ethics. The narrative ranges from an early childhood accident through his mothers terminal cancer when the boy is twelve, and on to his idealistic, awkwardly fervent teenage years. The first phase of the book culminates in his decision to carve out a new