May We Be Forgiven

Harry Silver is a professor in New York City whose speciality is Richard Nixon. His brother, George, a television executive, is placed in a psychiatric ward after a fatal car accident, and Harry, trying to comfort George’s wife, Jane, falls into an affair with her. A violent act by George in the first chapter sets up the rest of the novel.

Harry’s own wife leaves him, and he moves into George’s suburban house to look after his nephew, niece and dog. There he acts as an innocent abroad, which gives the book its satirical encounters.