From Publishers Weekly
Berger's first novel, originally published in 1964, depicts a turbulent day in the life of a 63-year-old London man.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
By interspersing interior monologs with elaborate accounts of office routine, Berger ( Keeping a Rendezvous , Random, 1992) reveals a day in the life of William Corker, the aging proprietor of a small employment agency in Clapham. Having just fled the house where he had been living with his invalid sister, Corker seeks freedom by moving into rooms above his office and abandoning himself to romantic dreams much like those of J. Alfred Prufrock. In a lecture on the glories of Vienna, Corker gradually speaks what he feels rather than what is expected of him. Soon after this illusory moment of liberation, however, he finds himself penniless and implicated in a criminal conspiracy. Action in Berger's novel is limited, but scrutiny of character is as intense as that found in Proust or Henry James. Minute details are telling and may require patient attention from some readers.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., CookevilleCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
