Disch's satirical wit gives his writing a biting flavor that sometimes seems out of place or heavy-handed, but makes his style distinctive. The wealthy and powerful Iowa farmowner in On Wings of Song, Grandison Whiting, wears a false red beard, kept secret even from his family, because he believes that by putting on or taking off the beard he changes his character.

The passage in which Whiting reveals all to the protagonist Weinreb is hilarious; the point of the falseness of outward appearances and of people's efforts to control how they appear is also sharply made. Good satire is like jabbing a long needle into its victim, and the needle is jabbed and wiggled about in On Wings of Song. Some Caucasians dye their bodies black because black skin is fashionable, but lest anyone mistake them for true Negroes they leave a finger, a portion of...