Charles Brownson: 2 books

An old professor of intellectual history inexplicably commits suicide. As a result, his doctoral student has to abandon his research, a young professor loses her job, a marriage falls apart and the wife has a breakdown, a community of friends disintegrates. And yet, there are small moments of understanding and compassion, and all is not lost.

On Sunday mornings in bed a long-married couple tell each other stories. One of them starts on a detective story, and when the other takes it up the story gets complicated by a competition. Each one leaves it after their turn with the plot in a condition apparently impossible to continue. In the course...