Issyvoo

Realism does its job, so that when they conclude that their story has their love in it, this is convincing. A happy love story is a rare event in the Post-Modernist novel.

But there is a flatness in the book that these likable characters cannot redeem. Partly this is the result of the heavy-handedness that is felt everywhere. “That storm blew up like a sawed-off simile,” Fenwick says. Mock solemnity keeps turning into the real thing…