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Title: What Happened?
Review: If ever a book was a set-up for a sequel, this is it. Which is unfair, given that what precedes the ending is thoughtful and insightful. Other reviewers have noted the unsatisfactory ending, so I don't feel I'm giving anything away by pointing out that there really isn't any ending. Is the reader to draw their own conclusions, or is there a followup in the wings? But the reader has to feel cheated since, unlike the serial works of Dickens or Thackery, the reader is led to believe this novel is a work in its entirety. The characters are given inner lives and divergent points of view, and there is almost a sensual quality to Raban's writing. But it is as if the publisher was on the phone with an insurmountable deadline to meet, and he had to leave the ending out in order to reach it.
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