Living in loneliness

READING BETWEEN THE LINES: Linda Taylor; Arrow Books, Random House U.K. Ltd., London. œ. 5.99.

THE AUTHOR of the book under review worked for the British Civil Service in London, Angola and Sri Lanka before teaching in Japan. She went back to Oxford University as a mature student to study English.

The book, her first novel, won the RNA New Writers' Award in 1998. The novel, set in contemporary Oxford, has an autobiographical touch - the 30-year-old heroine has just got a degree in English, specialising in medieval literature, having come to Oxford after working for 12 years in a solicitor's office.

The novel covers a few months in the lives of Julia and Maggie, another mature student, who find it difficult to go back to their older restricted lives after getting a degree.

They find that they have to work extra hard at their studies, to justify the decision to come to the university, disrupting their lives. Julia feels quite lonely, as most of her classmates are much younger than her. Her best friend is Maggie, a working class woman who has studied at Oxford for a degree after her children have grown up.

Maggie, approaching 50, finds that she can no longer communicate with her husband, and starts working as a barmaid (her old occupation) in the university town. Julia finds it difficult to get a job; she works as a volunteer at adult education classes, where she meets Mack. She is strongly attracted to Rob, an extremely good looking mature student.

The novelist gives a frank account of Julia's sexual hunger, but there is nothing titillating about it; the opening chapter, describing her first encounter with Rob, is quite funny. She finds it difficult to keep her mind on her teaching. Julia, still in mourning for her boyfriend, Bill, who left her for another woman, receives the attentions of both Mack and Leo, Rob's overbearing brother, who is a rich lawyer. Julia's life in a bedsitter at Oxford is recreated with sympathy and humour, the descriptions of her problems with her cat and the landlady give an authentic touch.

The novel also reveals how Maggie's efforts are not appreciated by her family; even her grown-up daughter applies double standards, justifying her father's adultery on the ground that Maggie neglected him.

The novel has a ``feel-good'' ending, without being escapist or unrealistic. It is very readable and one looks forward to more novels by the author.

SHYAMALA A. NARAYAN

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