Summer of Deliverance

I just finished Summer of Deliverance, by Christopher Dickey about his relationship with his famous poet-novelist father, James Dickey. Although I've never read any James Dickey (I did see the movie Deliverance) I've heard stories about him from my step-father who was a student of his at USC. I knew that the elder Dickey was quite a character and had read a couple of positive reviews of this book by his son.
The book is not a biography of either man; it's a semi-autobiography of a relationship between father and son written from the son's perspective. The story told is far from rosy; James Dickey was a dedicated narcissist, more devoted to his artistic craft and the persona that arose from his success than to his family. He was a serial adulterer, a mean drunk, a habitual liar and (at least in the opinions of many literary critics) a genius. The art world only read the poetry and his one great novel; Dickey's family had to live with the rest. Thus, Summer of Deliverance speaks powerfully to the question of the relationship between art, the artist's character and relationships. It's been far too easy for critics and readers to dismiss the destructive personal lives of many great artists as part of some necessary price they paid to make their work. Woody Allen quotes Oscar Wilde (?) to the effect that "Ode to a Grecian Urn is worth any number of old ladies." But when one of the old ladies in question is your mother - as it was in Christopher Dickey's case - the statement, and the lifestyle it's intended to defend, is revealed as simply cruel.
What's most remarkable about Summer of Deliverance, however, isn't the pain of James Dickey's family life; it's the story of a redemption long sought and finally experienced by the father and son in their relationship. Christopher Dickey has given a gift to all fathers, sons, and artists in this wise, moving book.