Who is Alistair Warthrop from The Monstrumologist and what is their importance?

Alistair Warthrop is Pellinore Warthro's father. Alistair is a monstrumologist who travels the world for information. He rarely sees his son and seems to care little for him. Pellinore doesn't understand his father's distance, and feels disheartened and left behind. When Pellinore learns that his father helped bring the Anthropophagi to the United States, hid them, and funded their survival, using patients from an asylum as food, Pellinore is even more torn. He feels responsible to his father, but at the same time, he understands that Alistair is responsible for the deaths of several people. Although Pellinore has spent his entire life trying to understand his father, he is able to put his father's lack of love behind him and move forward.