The Dream Master

Of all the mid-century sf I have been reading lately, this one has aged as badly as anything I have run across. It is an expanded novella, and that may be part of the problem. I never quite got the role of the protagonist's son or the suicides. To explicate some of the main character's thinking, Zelazny makes us listen in on a lecture he is preparing. Best character: the talking dog, the ultimate in trained helpmate for the blind.