A FATHER’S WORDS<i> by Richard Stern (University of Chicago Press: $9.95) </i>

A supposedly comic novel about a divorced father struggling to come to terms with his ne’er-do-well son. Jack, who casually buzzes in and out of jobs and people’s lives, obviously is intended to exude an irreverent, counterculture charm--a sort of literary equivalent of Michael Parks in “Then Came Bronson.” He comes off as a flake, a slug and a bore. Cy, the narrator/father, is no prize either, and the two characters richly deserve each other. Getting through Stern’s wordy prose is as cumbersome as chipping through a brick wall with a nut pick, and every bit as much fun.