In his memoir, Greg Bellow, the son of the famous 20th century American novelist Saul Bellow, writes movingly about his relationship with his father. A reviewer for The New Yorker magazine called Greg's book less a memoir than a "speaking wound." Greg was eight years old when his father told him that he and Greg's mom were separating. The father and son were sitting on a bench in Central Park when the news was delivered. Greg wrote:

I responded by making a snowball and letting it fly at a nearby pigeon. What I really wished for was the courage to hit my father with the snowball. Under the childhood anger my father expected and hoped to see was sadness born of losing the parent who understood me the best. At eight, I felt like a deep-sea diver cut off from my air supply.

The reviewer concluded his article on Greg Bellow's book by stating, "At sixty-nine, Greg Bellow is still the drowning deep-sea diver."