the nature of contemporary exploitation in its great theater, post-war New York.” Golk, then, is, for all of his eccentricities, an authentic original; he pushes his created form to its limits, and, in doing so, encounters the wrath of the establishment. Golk scares them, but his second-rate imitator, Hondorp, takes no risks and eventually fails to excite the audience. Even though Golk has lost his position, he remains a presence; he “fits,” while Hondorp does not belong anywhere.

In Any Case

Stern’s next important novel, In Any Case, also deals with betrayal. Theprotagonist, Samuel Curry, discovers in a book by a French priest an accusation that his son, Bobbie, has betrayed the Chaleur Network, a group of French, English, and Americans working against the Nazis in the early 1940’s. Curry is an unlikely hero; he is comfortable and established in France, and the thought of involving himself in the murk of the recent war is repugnant to him. He first seeks out Bobbie’s accuser, Father Trentemille, and confronts him, but he receives no satisfaction: Trentemille simply repeats the charges. He then tries two survivors of the “Network,” one of whom defends Bobbie, while the other repeats the accusation. He has better luck with Bobbie’s girlfriend in the Network, Jacqueline, who asserts her belief in Bobbie’s innocence, although she can offer no proof. He has even better luck with German sources and discovers that the real traitor is an agent whose code name is Robert. Robert is described as a professional agent, one who “doesn’t even have sides. He’s a sphere.” When Samuel Curry confronts Robert, he finds that the matter is more complicated than he had thought. He believes that Robert is a “decent” man and goes into business with him. Theclimax of the novel comes when Curry decides that he must expose Robert and ask Father Trentemille for a retraction. His motives for this action, however, are complex. He believes that he is punishing Robert for his own “delinquency” in rehabilitating Bobbie’s name and because Robert has become a rival for Jacqueline’s affections. The result of this series of betrayals is surprisingly tranquil. Robert is exposed, but he is not punished. Samuel Curry and Jacqueline marry and are living on the Riviera and expecting the birth of a child in a few months. Not only is Bobbie’s name cleared but also his father and the girl he loved have united to repair the loss of his death—a very satisfying ending.

Stern has spoken of how he drew upon and altered the factual background for In Any Case. His source was a factual account of the work of the underground in France. Stern makes it into a moral tale in which “the discoverer finds in himself a treasonous impulse which is related to the official traitor’s.” This impulse begins when Curry sees the divergence between motive and result, of intention and action. “Action would be too easy a way into the current, too much a short cut to judgment.” Curry’s own intentions and actions during the war and in his relationship with his son hinder any judgment he might make or any action he might take. Stern’s comment on his original title for the novel makes his intention clear. “The idea was that the hero always eschewed an active role because ’in any case’ there was so much to be said for either side that to take sides was to simplify the issue. To seek relief in action.” Curry seeks this sort of “relief” at the end of the novel when he can no longer control the complexities he discovers.

Stitch

In Stitch, Stern returns to the theme of “genius and its epigones.” The protagonist, Edward Gunther, is an American who has left his advertising job to find himself and culture in Europe. He has, however, no sensitivity to or perception of art; he spends his time, instead, in eating, chasing women, and brooding. His wife and children are left behind in a hotel in Venice while he searches for the European experience. His opposite, the genius, is Thaddeus Stitch, an American sculptor who has lived in Italy for many years and is recovering from a prison sentence for supporting Fascism; he is obviously modeled on Ezra Pound. Stitch is now quite old and unable to create great art, but his monuments surround him on his island. Edward and Stitch are brought together by their common interest in Nina, a young American poet. Nina is the opposite of Edward; Nina is a poet, not a cultural hanger-on like Edward, and her epic poem has some of the connections with the past that Stitch’s work does. Edward is measured and found wanting by these comparisons. As Stitch remembers creating or re-creating monuments of unaging intellect, and as Nina creates, Edward is literally swelling up with the weight he has gained and the assertions of his ego. His only encounter with Stitch ends with a curt dismissal from the master, and his only encounter with Stitch’s art produces only pseudoinsights; he describes the island as “beautiful wreckage.” Edward’s personal life is also a disaster: His wife finds out about his adulteries and throws him out of the house. He finds cultural salvation in the pompous essays he writes and in the possibility of a place with a foundation. The novel comes to an end with Edward’s return to the United States. He is teaching at a secondary school in Santa Barbara while waiting for a foundation position. He does hear news of those he left behind in Europe—news which unsettles him. Nina has married and had her epic poem published; Stitch remains in Venice and was the one who introduced Nina to her husband; Edward’s wife has divorced him and has found a new partner. Edward is watching the funeral services for President John F. Kennedy as his dreams of finding himself and Europe fade into nothingness.

In Stitch, Stern takes the theme of genius and its epigones much further than he did in Golk. The genius of this novel is much more credible; some of the best parts of the book are the descriptions of Stitch’s art. The epigone is also more credible: Edward is not merely a nullity who is suddenly placed in a position of power but also a chilling example of the cultural middleman who would not recognize an authentic work of art if he tripped over one. The debate between Edward and Nina over Stitch’s art, and art in general, defines the differences between the genius and the epigone. Nina sees the problem in life and in art. “Attempts to be what we aren’t. Overprizing our singularity. Egoism. Imperceptivity in situations solved long ago. Failure to adapt. The bloodline runs from the world to art’s expression of it.” Yet Edward never can escape his egoism, and he remains a bundle of unfulfilled and inexpressible longings.

Other Men’s Daughters

Other Men’s Daughters traces the changes in a relationship and a family, a theme in nearly all of Stern’s fiction, especially the later works. The protagonist is a very attractive and settled man, Dr. Merriwether. He is a professor at Harvard Medical School, and he lives in Cambridge in a house passed down to him from his ancestors. He is jolted out of this settled life when a young girl, Cynthia Ryder, comes to him one day for a prescription for the Pill. They meet a few times and eventually become lovers. Dr. Merriwether—Stern emphasizes his title and position rather than his personal identity—resists for a while, but they become deeply involved. When Cynthia returns to Swarthmore, they correspond and keep the relationship alive. They manage to meet when Merriwether delivers a paper in New York and when Cynthia can come to Cambridge, but Merriwether manages simultaneously to keep his domestic life intact. This balance is upset, however, when Cynthia accompanies Merriwether to Italy, where he is reading a paper. Merriwether adds a few “speculations” to his formal paper and is then attacked by an American scientist who tells him to “go back to your child whore and let the rest of us do serious work.”

The public exposure continues when Newsweek prints an item linking Merriwether and Cynthia; this brings Cynthia’s father on the scene to confront the couple. The confrontation between Mr. Ryder and Merriwether is reminiscent of In Any Case; Mr. Ryder does not despise Merriwether but is, instead, drawn to the seriousness and character he sees in him. He does, however, require Cynthia to undergo psychiatric therapy and for the lovers not to meet for a period. The reaction of Merriwether’s wife, Sarah, from whom he has long been emotionally estranged, is angry and bitter. Egged on by her lawyer, she starts acrimonious divorce proceedings, and Merriwether loses all of his comfort and the routines he has established over the years. There are some touching moments, such as the Merriwethers’ last Christmas together and the parents’ breaking the news of their divorce to the younger children; the mood moves away from bitterness once the painful process has been completed. The last chapter of the novel reunites Merriwether and Cynthia in Colorado. The new environment helps Merriwether to overcome the earlier dislocations, and he has some tender moments with his two youngest children. The last note is a very positive one. “The depth of love after loss. The way of human beings.Linkage. Transmission. Evolving.”

Other Men’s Daughters emphasizes character and setting more than theme. Stern’s portrayal of Robert Merriwether—he acquires a first name when he immerses himself in the private world of relationships—and his world is very full. Even Merriwether’s scientific specialty, thirst, is exactly appropriate. Furthermore, Stern also renders Sarah’s point of view with an impressive sympathy and fidelity. She reveals that the apparently perfect home and family is a facade that hides long-held feelings of resentment and hatred. In the late twentieth century, divorce may be what marriage was to Jane Austen in the nineteenth century, the essential social transaction to be represented in the novel.

Natural Shocks

Natural Shocks begins where Other Men’s Daughters ends; the protagonist, Frederick Wursup, is a new journalist who has been divorced for three years. He now lives across from his children and former wife, and he spends much time peeping into his wife’s apartment to see what is happening. This intrusion on privacy is directly related to Wursup’s occupation as a journalist, and there are many examples in the book of Wursup’s destructive private revelations. He recalls an interview with a famous Hollywood director for Life magazine and feels “disgusted” at his unwarranted invasion of the man’s privacy. His attempt to help a friend who is having political problems with a forthcoming magazine article revealing that the friend’s father is on welfare only makes matters worse. A mutual friend, Knoblauch, sees a central problem in such writing: “The intimacies would be converted into publicity, benevolently but beyond recall. All but the hardest or deepest people would find that unbearable.” After establishing the theme of the public revelation of private events and feelings, the novel shifts to deal with the most essential “natural shock,” death. Wursup is looking for a topic on which to write, and his editor suggests that he look into the newly popular subject of death. When Wursup visits the hospital to talk to some dying patients, however, he becomes involved in the life of one of them, Cicia Buell. Because of his involvement, or the irreducible nature of death, Wursup finds it difficult to translate the interview with Cicia into his usual brand of journalism. Other shocks follow: His father and a friend commit suicide because of age or anxiety; the reason is never made clear. Wursup’s wife remarries, which dislocates his sense of order. He tries to retreat to a Maine island to find some rest and peace; his idyll is interrupted, however, by the news that Cicia is dying. By the time he arrives at the hospital, she is dead, and the novel ends on a note of darkness unrelieved by any saving insight.

The themes are clear in Natural Shocks; death and privacy are interwoven throughout the novel. What is more difficult is coming to terms with the main character, Fred Wursup. He is an engaging and witty character, but his prying into people’s lives for material for his journalism is disturbing. It is no accident that the book begins and ends with Wursup spying on his former wife’s apartment. Wursup does have an epiphany: “Wursup himself had surrendered Cicia upstairs. She was almost as far away as Poppa and Mona. He’d toss off that article for Mike Schilp now. It was just another verbal turn.” The people whose lives he has touched have become a product to be marketed. His recognition is, perhaps, what distinguishes him from other revealers of the private life.

A Father’s Words

A Father’s Words is another investigation of domestic life, although the conflict is now not between husband and wife but between parent and children. The father, Cy Riemer, is amicably divorced from his first wife; his four children are in their twenties and, with one exception, settled. Jack is the oldest child and the recipient of most of his father’s words; he is a habitual liar and self-deceiver whose unstructured life is a constant source of dismay and disruption to his father. Cy is always encouraging his son to become respectable. When Jack is working in a “bucket shop” selling books by phone, his father suggests that he get a job in a publishing company. Jack resists the advice, however, and continues on his disorderly way. He only impinges on his father’s life when he suggests that Cy accept personal advertisements for his scientific newsletter. Cy is in financial difficulty and lets Jack handle it, although he feels soiled by the ads.

Jack marries Maria Robusto, the daughter of a pornographic film king, and starts working for a commodities broker, so his father is temporarily relieved. Cy has trouble, however, with his other children. The next oldest, Jenny, has written a Ph.D. thesis on the “Wobbling” family in literature. The youngest son, Ben, has published a book called The Need to Hurt, which claims that human personality is formed at the fetal stage. Both works are attacks on Cy’s fatherhood and his concept of family. The conflict with Jack comes to a head when Cy confronts Jack in a run-down tenement in New York. Again, Cy’s words do not help, and Jack seems to give up on their relationship and on himself. “Face it, Dad. I’m finished. I’m never going to be what you want me to be.”

There are, however, two important reversals at the end of the novel. First, only a few years later, Jack becomes successful; he is the creator of a television situation comedy which features an addled father who creates problems which the wise son has to solve. It is another attack on Cy’s fatherhood and a curious metamorphosis of their relationship. The second reversal is that Cy has, once more and against all odds and sense, become a father. He resists at first and asks his then girlfriend, Emma, to get an abortion, but at the end he leaves Jack and looks forward to “coming home to a new family.”

Cy seems, at first glance, to be an ideal parent. He encourages, instructs, and supports all of his children. Yet the words he directs toward his children to accomplish these tasks are resented by his children. Jenny accuses him of “the destructiveness that’s there with the generosity and love.” She believes that her father does not want anyone to “rival” him and so he cuts down each of the children. Furthermore, the children’s success is based on the defeat of the father, in Jack’s television show, Jenny’s thesis, or Ben’s book. The theme, then, is the oppressive burden of a father’s love, inevitably felt no matter how the father treats the child; each child in the novel must win his independence by supplanting the father in some way. It must be said that this conflict and its resolutions are given a witty rather than oppressive treatment by Stern. In addition, Cy does not, finally, bend under the weight of this conflict but accepts and looks forward to it.

Stern has created a body of work that is equal to that of any of his contemporaries. He was stereotyped early in his career as a follower of Saul Bellow and as a Jewish novelist. Those labels never did fit Stern, and they have become even less accurate as his work has developed. He has moved from such strongly thematic novels as Golk and In Any Case to novels that emphasize character and plot. Stern’s ability to create not only credible characters but also their environment is most impressive. His novels are, as one critic has said, “in the great tradition of moral realism.”