From Publishers Weekly
When British TV show hostess Candida Thackeray asks Robin Maitland, her childhood pal and her husband Jake's former best friend, to godparent her baby, she rattles a chain of improbable but entertaining events. Robin, having suffered a breakdown, has subsequently spent nearly eight years with an oddball religious community off the English coast; he emerges for the christening to find his parents, Peter and Andrea, running a kindergarten. Subsequently, Peter visits Marcus, a man hospitalized with an unnamed terminal disease, and Andrea visits Faber, a painter and the father, by adoption, of Iras, a girl born without eyes. Faber turns out to have once been an intimate of the dying Marcus, Robin to be in love with Faber, and Jake to have caused Robin's psychosis. Although the interconnections are sometimes pat and all females, even the saintly Iras, are shown as hidden saboteurs, this newest black comedy by the author of The Aerodynamics of Pork tries for seriousness but remains essentially lightweight and zany.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
Review
'Love, death, the decay of friendship, the triumph of love - all the big themes are here in small doses, cunningly plotted and skilfully interwoven by Patrick Gale, who writes like Iris Murdoch on pep pills. Savage, satirical, often very funny, this highly readable comedy of middle-class manners is written by a young author of boundless talent. One to watch.' Daily Mail 'Gale describes strong emotions with conviction. He shows the diversity of passionate behaviour, sometimes hilarious, sometimes threatening, but always skilfully contained within a comedy of contemporary manners.' The Times 'A richly comic novel about the equilibrium of urban lives and loves upset by an outsider. Affectionate and perceptive.' Mail on Sunday 'His discreet exploration of love between the generations and the sexes is by turn poignant and humorous.' Vogue 'Sharp insights into a thoroughly modern marriage.' Sunday Times 'This is a witty book with more than a touch of satire, but which deals with love, pain, death and laughter with an extraordinary depth of understanding.' She 'A wonderful, modern comedy of manners.' Company
