"At the age of 22, Joel Zwilling emerged as a literary wunderkind with the success of his novel, Less Him, an autobiographical tale of growing up as the New York child of Holocaust survivors. After disappointing second and third novels, Zwilling's career seems poised to be revived by a short story of a widowed writer. Yet just before the piece appears, Joel's real wife and daughter are killed in a car accident.

Left with a young son to raise - and a writer's block as large and unmoving as a pyramid - he moves to the Midwest in an attempt to lose himself in a more placid life."--BOOK JACKET.

"Over the next two decades, Joel's writing career will be all but eclipsed by that of his son, Nate, whose collaborative efforts with his girlfriend Polly have acquired both avant-garde cachet and academic acclaim. Thus Nate is astounded - and jealous - when his father is approached by Brian Horkow, a California director aiming to capture Joel's tragic early work on film."--BOOK JACKET.