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The Birthday Present

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--a description that could fit most Ruth Rendell books, but especially those written as the author's Barbara Vine alter ego. "The Birthday Present" begins with the budding of an affair between patrician Tory MP Ivor Tesham and bored middle class housewife Hebe Furnal. The two have a taste for slightly kinky sex which eventually leads to a sexual stunt that goes off the tracks and ends in the woman's death. From that point, author Rendell/Vine spins an elaborate and cynical tale of how the deadly sex adventure spirals outward, involving increasing numbers of people who are inadvertedly affected by the event in some way. Reading this story is a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion for the reader--and marveling at how cleverly the author has constructed the whole structure.

It is appalling to understand that Rendell's implied lesson in "The Birthday Present" is that the well-born and well-connected will always emerge alright in the end no matter how great their moral failings. Conversely, the less-gifted, less well-advantaged will rarely be cut a break in a crisis. Worst of all (for this reader), is to see her argue (convincingly) that there are many enablers of bad behavior by the rich and powerful who might themselves be perfectly moral and responsible people. This happens in "The Birthday Present" as one of the two narrators of the tale is a perfectly honest and straightforward guy who happens to be the errant MP's brother-in-law. He is personally disapproving of the other's behavior but makes no real effort to condemn it. By implication, Rendell is suggesting that class defines all and excuses everything.

The second narrator of this book is, by the way, a woman with considerable vulnerabilities who is dragged by the initial death down a path toward madness. She becomes, unexpectedly, one of the main characters of the novel and ultimately an unwitting victim of the patrician and his deceased girlfriend.

Anyone who appreciates Rendell/Vine's psychodramas will not be disappointed by this book. For a first reader, however, it could be a very dark and uncomfortable ride.