Really grows on you. Main character Hervey is trying to do all and be all things. She is a wife and mother, separated, following a new love, still tangled in the old. Other characters suffer similar distress. The novel shows Hervey as a successful participant in the world if writing and publishing. She is a published author, writing for hours at night after work. A strong theme is socialism in the 1920s. Another is the effect of war on the generation of men who survived it, and on their partners. Various male characters illuminate all these themes.
The writing itself is strangely compelling, it is at times intensely emotional or detached, detailed and realistic, or stream of consciousness . Some of her female characters are just awful. Despicable.
For a while I found the novel such a unique work, not all that appealing. But I kept going and it drew me in more as I read on. It seems such a personal and real story, and it is based on the authors life so eventually I accepted what she writes. It is a fascinating glimpse into life in the Twenties, particularly for well brought up women and their relationships. Hervey is so intent on being kind and doing good, as are other characters. It seems unreal today.
The novel is book two in the trilogy Mirror in Darkness. I would love to read Company Parade, book one. From what I can tell it deals with the more immediate aftermath of WW1. I think it has different main characters, who appear briefly in book two. ( )