The Real Subject is not exactly a novel and not really a poem, though it contains some verses and is not without characters. Jacob Delafon, whose musings are here presented, is a man late in life who has gotten around-at least in his own mind-read a great deal, unsystematically, thought (with even less system) about what he has seen, heard, what he comes up against. He is, in fact, a unique geezer, whose trains of thought seem often on tracks without station or schedule. To move one to another of Jacob Delfon’s turns of mind and twisted meditations requires, not fast, but careful footwork. There is no set path. The interest is in the steps.