THE MUCH HONORED MAN

by Daniel Tamkus ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This is a first novel written in the first person in the form of a letter, an ""exhibitionistic letter"" as the narrator calls it. The narrator, Manfred, a physicist, once a Nobel Prize winner, addresses his letter, which becomes a recent history of his family, to his future son-in-law. He attempts to explain the seemingly inexplicable behavior of his willful, undisciplined daughter, Fredericka, by way of an apologia for himself. After Manfred won the Nobel Prize he felt it necessary to acquire and sustain a reputation for being a great eccentric on campus. He surrounded himself with a corps of devoted young men who variously courted Fredericka and whom he ignored as he did his wife and daughter. Until Rhinehart Shell arrived. Rhinehart, an ""artistic physicist"" a ""mixture of jazzy foolishness and intense seriousness"", proceeded to demolish Manfred's pose of genius and seduce Fredericka. Her pregnancy rouses Manfred who drives Shell from his home, to his death, thoroughly alienating Fredericka. She commences a round of delinquent excesses which are halted apparently by the mysterious fiance who has the blessing of the parents. An unusual book with some insights and perceptions, which are not entirely diminished by the extremity of the situation and the vacuity of the characters.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1959

Categories: FICTION