"When I remember that dizzy summer, that dull, stupid, lovely, dire summer, it seems that in those days I ate my lunches, smelled another's skin, noticed a shade of yellow, even simply sat, with greater lust and hopefulness--and that I lusted with greater faith, hoped with greater abandon. The people I loved were celebrities, surrounded by rumor and fanfare; the places I sat with them, movie lots and monuments."

The novelist's themes are heavy. But the novelist's touch is light. Throughout his adventures, which bring him to the brink of tragedy on several occasions, Bechstein remains amused and amusing.

Early in the novel, he visits Arthur, who is house-sitting for the Bell-weathers, a snobbish couple. Cleveland arrives and discovers that the family's precious pooch is in heat. Cleveland invites a neighbor's three dogs over for an orgy.

When the Bellweathers return, chaos erupts:

" 'What have you done to our dog?' " said Mrs. Bellwether--to Cleveland....

"Arthur started to say 'Nothing,' but Cleveland interrupted him.

" 'We bashed her head with a ball-peen hammer,' he said."

Bechstein's summer journey is interrupted every so often by the appearance of his father. As the summer wears on, Bechstein's visits with his father become more painful; he begins to see the man behind the mob. For Bechstein, his father is both a ghost, of a life he left behind, and a portent, of future that may await him.

Bechstein finds the past in the future. And the past must be discovered, as painful as that discovery is, lest it remain a haunting mystery.