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Title: intriguing project, scintillating execution
Review: This novel takes the life of Henry James as its subject and interpolates fact with fiction without losing its energy. Lodge does a wonderful job of lighting up the things that we do know about James and adding some conjecture. His rendering of the opening night of "Guy Domville"--James's flop of a play--is both comic and tragic, and would itself be worth the price of the book. Unlike Colm Toibin's "The Master" (another fictionalized biography of James), Lodge doesn't succumb to saccharine or sentimental devices to close the book, but remains sharp from beginning to end.
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