Offshore

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It's the Thames standing in for the River Lethe, whose waters wiped the pasts of ancient Greek souls before they wandered beyond it into the Limbo of Asphodel. had made him totally self-contained and able with the sunny smile and formal handshake of the gymnast to set almost anybody at their ease. I started at the beginning and started making assumptions, like all Booker Prize winners are about the empire. Among the others are two financially secure chaps with, or retired from, office jobs who just prefer barge living to houses.

This book is an acquired taste, but, although it might now seem too dated to do so, I can well understand why it won the Booker Prize in 1979. The preface is followed by a very interesting introduction—which I took the time to listen to twice!

She is passionate about Edward, her drifting husband, who does not want to live with her; but succumbs to a one-night stand with Richard whom she considers, may be the perfect man - he knows how to fold maps - effortlessly.

This vital ability may be the feminine counterpart to Nenna's claimed deficiencies-of-gender, such as being unable to fold a map.In an interview Penelope Fitzgerald said she was drawn to "people who seem to have been born defeated or even profoundly lost; people who are ready to assume the conditions the world imposes on them, but don't manage to submit to them. He lives on a converted minesweeper, not because he has to but because, having been a naval officer during the War, he just likes ships. The life of the river is nearly always present, not only the tide lifting and dropping the boats, but the passing vessels.