5.0 out of 5 stars
Fine Novel, December 3, 2010
Those who have only read Mortimer's Rumpole stories may not know what a fine non-Rumpole novelist he is.
His "Paradise Postponed" (Titmuss) trilogy is quite amusing and incisive.
But this early book, "The Narrowing Stream," may be even better.
The prose is limpid and precise. It's amazing how much Mortimer conveys with so few words.
He is sort of the anti-Henry James. James spews words like a geyser to nail down the tiniest (not very important) nuance--leaving the reader stunned, soaked, almost drowned in words.
Mortimer is the opposite. He is amazing at conveying feeling and character with the slightest touch. In this way he is like Shakespeare.
This novel is character-driven, but deals with all kinds of themes: fidelity, aging, boredom, death, the ever-present Oedipal threat of younger generations, the life of fantasy.
An extraordinary, moving, somber but uplifting book.
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