The novel's principal character is Nathan Zuckerman, an accomplished novelist, famous — or infamous — for his fourth novel, Carnovsky (which bears close comparison to Roth's Portnoy's Complaint). Nathan becomes his brother's confidant when, after a long estrangement as the result of Carnovsky and its treatment of their family, Henry feels he must talk with someone about his predicament. His heart ailment is being treated medically with a beta-blocker, which unfortunately also causes impotence and therefore seriously interferes with his sex life. Although he recognizes the dangers, Nathan does not talk him out of the surgery. When Henry is resurrected in the next section and abandons his family for life in Israel, Nathan hunts him down in Judea, where he has fallen under the sway of Mordecai Lippman, a militant Zionist. Nathan does not try to persuade his brother to return home, and during his visit he learns...