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Title: Modern Sympathy
Review: There's an old, old trick in the literary book which it's rare to do well: Take an unsympathetic stereotype and use a sympathetic treatment of it to illuminate the society reflected in the book. Think Madame Bovary, on a smaller and frothier scale. Maxted isn't the best at it, but I've seen a lot worse.Once you can take the imaginative leap of having sympathy for a character you'd love to hate instead, the book is a good read. It's clean, flowing and well-crafted. Not all the surprises are that surprising, and not all the funnies are very funny, but the dialogue is smooth and the narrative has good drive with few pointless excursions.
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