Novel, 1968

Two firm friends, their life stories and those of the families and friends around them, over a 30-40 year period. After a section dedicated to old-fashioned scene setting, there’s more scene-setting. A big book, this, so that by the time there’s a little ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’, the reader’s been broken down and will quite probably neither notice nor care. Some of the writing is very good, and characters are well drawn; there’s just not enough for the reader to make them feel as if they’re playing any role in reading, rather than just being spoon fed.