"The Italian Teacher," by Tom Rachman

I wrote a glowing review (12/12/10) here of Tom Rachman’s 2010 first novel “The Imperfectionists.” When his next novel, “The Rise and Fall of Great Powers,” came out in 2014, I started it but couldn’t get caught up in it, so I didn’t finish it. Now I have read his new novel, “The Italian Teacher” (Viking, 2018), and like it very much. Its themes of art, creativity and family, especially the father-son relationship, are powerfully and originally presented. The main characters are the larger-than-life artist, Bear Bavinsky, and his son, nicknamed Pinch, always in the shadow of his father. Because Bear does not stay long with Pinch’s mother (or with any woman – he is married several times and has innumerable affairs), the son only sees his father occasionally, but is always longing for more time with him, and always eager for his approval. He hopes to be a painter himself, and also to write a biography of his father. Bear is enthusiastic when he he is with Pinch, but never seems to give him his full attention. Pinch becomes the Italian teacher of the title. The job is far from glamorous, but he gets some pleasure from it, while still yearning for something more, something artistic, something that connects him with his father. Toward the end of the novel (but with foreshadowings), a secret is revealed, and there is a resulting major plot development, neither of which, of course, I will divulge here; I will only say that although in one way these are surprising, in another way they are perfectly consonant with the rest of the story, and with Pinch’s complicated relationship with his father. An added pleasure of the novel is the various very specifically described settings in the United States, England, and France.