Precocious

Today's my dad's birthday, which seems like as good a time as any to link to this 1972 Time review of his first novel, Hide Fox, and All After:

It is not often that a writer sees his main character as clearly and directly as Rafael Yglesias sees Raul, the precocious 14-year-old who bombs out of private school in this brief and crystalline first novel. The author avoids displays of virtuosity, the pleasures of romantic posturing, and all other possible uses of fiction except this one: to watch with great care a being who fascinates him. The steadiness and detachment of his view would be remarkable in any case, but are truly astonishing for a writer who was exactly 15 years old when he wrote the novel.

He had, however, reached the advanced age of 17 by the time the book actually came out. These days, though, he's an old man -- happy birthday!