Elkin once described George Mills as a fountain of stories, but some readers may be bothered by its defiantly episodic structure. Part One is a self-contained, wonderful story about Greatest Grandfather and the "First Crusade."

Parts Two, Three, and Five chronicle episodically the adventures of the contemporary Mills, with flashbacks to his youth in Florida and speculation on his father's life and decisions. Part Four is the forty-third Mills's story, who tells the first section, his meeting with King George IV, from the firstperson central point of view. Elkin shifts to his characteristic third-person historical omniscient for the large portion of the narrative.

This unchronological telling of the events — telling the forty-third Mills's story as Part Four — reinforces thematic connections among the ways certain generations of Millses adapt to their condition. It also reinforces Elkin's theme concerning the arbitrariness of history. What could be more arbitrary...