In My Father's House pivots on a single dramatic and catalytic event — the return of Etienne Martin, or Robert X, and his subsequent suicide. Consequently, the cast of primary characters is small, and despite the omniscient narrator, the mood is more introspective than panoramic. If The Autobiography of Miss fane Pittman was Gaines's epic poem, this is his Greek tragedy, focussing as it does on the moral plight of a particular character. It is a tale about the profound isolation of people from one another, ironically set in the context of the effort of blacks to join in political protest and collective racial progress. The main character, Phillip, married to his second wife, Alma, appears to have learned the lessons of life presented by the rootlessness of his early years. He seems to be a welladjusted, successful family man, committed both to his wife and to his...