content: I have long been a fan of Muriel Spark's, truly enjoying her humor and style. I liked her autobiography as well. But this book is a great disappointment. The characters are shallow: in particular, Dr. Wolf is cardboard and scarcely believable. There is a certain sense of haste: events are barely sketched, and it is all quickly brought to a conclusion, without going into any detail. A very thin book indeed, which would probably have received much less attention if the author did not have such a reputation.