Heavenly Read

Lapham Rising: A Novel, by Roger Rosenblatt (Ecco, 256 pp., $23.95)

THIS is a zany tale. It is a comic novel perfectly conjugated, moving the reader with delight through a three-act plot featuring a hero who is slightly mad, not quite prevailing over the antagonist, who is slightly mad; all of this with appropriate commentary from Hector, a talking dog who is pious and insolent. Try it.