From Publishers Weekly
Narrator Julian Ramsey, met in Incline Our Hearts , continues his life story in another comedy of manners whose tone darkens as it chronicles the mistakes and wrong turns that determine the downward direction of his once-promising life. Recklessly having left his first job in London to become a writer and/or actor, Julian initially seems to encounter enormous good luck. He falls in love and marries Anne Lampitt, member of the aristocratic family with which Julian's guardian, Uncle Roy, has had a lifelong obsession verging on mania. Next, sinisterly charming womanizer Raphael Hunter, once the seducer of Julian's cousin Felicity and now a famous man of letters via his biography of one of the Lampitts, uses his influence to get Julian's novel published. Disaster follows. Looking back after four decades, Julian realizes that he was callow, obtuse, egotistical and self-deluded; his elegiac tone is balanced by the rich humor and compassion with which he describes his friends of that period: the scruffy denizens of the neighborhood pub, his egregiously eccentric landlady and her long-suffering husband, and the insouciantly insufferable members of the Lampitt family. Enriching the narrative are Wilson's ( Tolstoy ) ironic comments about the craft of biography as well as religion, human relationships and memory. As he ruminates on the changes in character wrought by time and events, Julian will whet readers' appetites for the concluding volume in this witty, poignant, luminously intelligent series.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Library Journal
This second novel in a proposed trilogy that began with Incline Our Hearts ( LJ 12/88) continues the life story of Julian Ramsey, a 20th-century David Copperfield who is surrounded by a Dickensian gallery of characters. Having survived his years in boarding schools and military service in the first book, Julian now faces the experiences of working in a pub, falling in love, and writing a novel. Characters from the first book play major roles in this one; it's best to read Incline Our Hearts first to appreciate fully the actions of Julian's relatives and friends. A prolific novelist and a prize-winning biographer ( Tolstoy, LJ 8/88), Wilson is one of England's most versatile contemporary writers. Highly recommended.
- Dean Willms, Fort Collins P.L., Col.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
