A Theory of Great Men

Greenstone's debut follows the decline of a brilliant but cynical high school history teacher and basketball coach in suburban Chicago too often ruled by his id. George Cavaliere is a great teacher but an impulsive man when feeding his appetites, and often misreads the cues of the women around him. When he tries to do the right thing, like end an affair, his wife kicks him out. After his previous teacher's assistant complains of sexual harassment, Cavaliere is given a new, male assistant%E2%80%94Eric Goldstein, a real mensch. Goldstein smooths over some of Cavaliere's rougher edges, but Cavaliere's repeated errors, self-indulgence, and disdain for political correctness has a cumulative effect on his career and personal life (sometimes amusingly so, as when the cafeteria lady laces his pastry with laxatives), lending weight to his lesson that outside events, and not great men, are what shape our lives. Greenstone succeeds best with his complex narrator, a stubborn man who sticks to his belief that life is happening to him when in fact he's the driving force of his own destruction. Less successful is the coaching subplot; lessons are learned by all, but anyone who isn't a basketball fan will find the technical details tedious. (July)