A decaying coastal town just after World War II is the
setting for Elizabeth Taylor’s third novel, in which she explores
the inner lives of its residents and of a newcomer. The newcomer
is a retired naval officer who arrives to paint coastal scenes.
The residents include a writer whose household demands compete
with finishing a novel; her recently divorced, lonely neighbor and
best friend, who is falling in love with the writer’s husband, the
town doctor; a nasty, paralyzed retired shopkeeper and her morose
daughters; a sad war widow who runs the wax museum; and a handful
of other flawed characters. Treating them all as ordinary people,
Taylor displays her acute perceptiveness while making no
judgments. A running theme involving the carefree painter and the
harried novelist asks whose circumstances are more conducive to
making art.
British novelist Taylor was not well known in the United States
until her novels were reissued in the NYRB Classics series. She
has been called a later-day Jane Austen.
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