Opens as Max Klein, a brash loner and womanizer, abandons his academic career to pursue and confront his parents, a mother who abandoned him when he was a toddler, and a father who has refused to acknowledge his existence. Derailed by a sexual misadventure with Iris Shelton, whom he abandons-and who secretly follows him-Max travels to California, where both parents live, and meets Nadia Varlova. She is Russian, young, intelligent, sexy, and a former (or current?) lover of Benjamin Farber, Max's father. The coincidence is irresistible (though puzzling). Max uses Nadia to get to Farber, even as Nadia-who is in league with Farber and Iris-plans to seduce and humiliate Max.Jack Lawrence Luzkow is a historian and professor at Fontbonne University in St. Louis. He published The Revenge of History (Edwin Mellen Press) and What's Left? Marxism, Utopianism, and the Revolt against History (University Press of America). He studied fiction with Nahid Rachlin at the University of Iowa, and Tim O'Brien.