An experimental novel following six friends, three women and three men, from childhood to old age. Instead of ordinary scenes, the book is built from their spoken thoughts in turn, set between short passages describing the sea and the sun across a single day. Bernard, Neville, Louis, Susan, Jinny and Rhoda each see the world differently, and each is shaped by the others and by a friend they all admired. Poetic and demanding, it explores identity, friendship and the sense of a self among others.
Quotes
But look — he flicks his hand to the back of his neck. For such gesture one falls hopelessly in love for a lifetime.
For I am more selves than Neville thinks. We are not simple as our friends would have us to meet their needs. Yet love is simple.
Among the tortures and devastations of life is this then — our friends are not able to finish their stories.
Things have dropped from me. I have outlived certain desires; I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street.