Bech Is Back (Paperback, 1st Ballantine Books trade ed)

In this follow-up to "Bech: A Book, " Henry Bech, the priapic, peripatetic, and unproductive Jewish American novelist, returns with seven more chapters from his mock-heroic life. He turns fifty in a confusing blend of civic and erotic circumstances while publicizing himself in Australia and Canada. He marries a "shiksa" and travels with her to Israel, where she falls in love with the land, and to Scotland, where "he" does. And--sweating buckets thinking big minting miracles "--"he writes an ingeniously tawdry bestseller. Bech's aesthetic and moral embarrassments reveal acid truths about both his trade and our times.