I would honestly be astonished if Bryer actually read the book. I never got the impression he was much of a reader, and if he had a learning disability like dyslexia, which had been widely speculated on here, he may have found it difficult to get through, beyond the emotional issues it may have dredged up.
Beyond all that, I think a lot of people get asked to read someone's book/manuscript and then never do. Not even because they think it is terrible--they just aren't really interested and don't want to hurt someone's feelings or they have better things to do. Honestly, when I gave multiple relatives copies of my master's thesis, they were all very proud of me, but only one of them actually read the darn thing. (My dad.

) But it never bothered me. I never really thought any of them would read it. LOL
Incidentally, if his dad talked a lot about the content of the book, that very well could have just dredged up unhappy childhood memories as much as if Bryer had read the book himself. MOO