MALCOLM

James Purdy's critically acclaimed first novel, Malcolm (1959), won praise from writers as diverse as Dame Edith Sitwell, Dorothy Parker, and Gore Vidal. Malcolm is a classic innocent, led from one protective personality to another in the search for his missing father. He becomes involved in a series of poignant and wildly comic adventures as he is taken under the wing of an astrologer, an undertaker, a jazz queen, and other eccentric characters.