It is essentially a farce - thought with few laughs - weighed down but a lot of intellectual pretension on the lines of should someone do what they want or what they ought. There is a complete lack sympathetic (or even credible) characters. In particular the ability of one character to pop up as if by co-incidence at key points is laughable.

I presume Murdoch can produce better stuff than this, parts of the novel are well done - but on this basis it is difficult to understand where she gets her reputation from.

If you are new to Murdoch - as I was - don't start here.


Overboiled wifeswapping tale   March 14, 2001
 10 out of 24 found this review helpful

This book was very well reviewed when first released, but I can't understand why.

It starts off quite well with a good few chapters on a stale middle-aged marriage and an affair between the husband and a younger woman. From then on it's downhill all the way.

The main cast of the book is 3 male & 3 female characters. All all of men have sex with all the women, everyone lies endlessly to their partners before coming clean. Half way through, the rest o fthe book is totally predictable .

Completely implausible, filled with uninterseting characters and absolutely humourless.