The Italian teacher

Bear Bavinsky is an artist famous for painting vast canvases. Pinch, his son, was conceived while Bear cavorted around Rome in the early 1950s, and adores his father almost as much as he fears him. After Bear deserts his family, Pinch strives to make himself worthy of his father's attention -- first by becoming a painter himself, then by writing his father's biography. Eventually, a disillusioned Pinch settles into a job as an Italian teacher in London. When Bear dies, Pinch hatches an audacious scheme to secure his father's legacy and make his own mark on the world.