[In "Bread Upon the Waters," Irwin Shaw details] the burdens of limitless bounty, the temptations of accepting overwhelming generosity, the attempts to keep a family together when outside forces are threatening its preservation as a tightly knit unit. But there is much more here, and if we accept this novel as only a Santa Claus fantasy gone awry, we are doing its author a great disservice. Allen Strand is a curiously old-fashioned man adrift in a culture moving too swiftly for him, protected from the intrusion of modern everyday realities by an overindulgent family. Largely because of Hazen's entrance into his life, he begins to learn—slowly and painfully—that surface appearances (like the book's fairy tale plot) are not to be trusted. Through his narrator-hero, Mr. Shaw is really addressing himself to problems that should be troubling any thoughtful American: the use and abuse of power, the...