Jacqueline Kent

And it is surprisingly engaging, actually.

It's just sort of all the things that he's trying to do.

And it's really about trying to put too much into your day in some ways and very, very much changing gear from different ways of doing things.

And he's a good writer.

So it's a remarkably good book, actually.

Well, she could have.

I suppose she could have.

But it really is, as you say, it is an examination of monogamy

one particular long-lasting marriage, which is kind of, we're kind of in Anne Tyler territory here, because these, the people who are in the main characters of this novel, are educated, middle-class, academic type Americans.

And one of them, Annie, is an artist.

And Graham, her husband, who is the kind of the main character, whether he's there or not, and he's not always there speaking, but he very much is the mover and shaker of this novel for various reasons, which she does explore quite interestingly.

It's the relationship between them and the relationship between those two and various members of their family.

That's what I mean about being Anne Tyler kind of territory.

That's very nice, actually, as she does that really rather nicely.

And this is how you can tell that she's written 10 novels or maybe 11.

Maybe this is the novel number 11, I think, isn't it?

Before this, because she knows exactly how to do things like giving backstory, like introducing characters so you don't forget who they are.

And as you say, the difference between Annie and

Graham is quite interesting because Graham is one of these large sort of huggy bear men who more or less takes life as it comes and everybody everybody likes him and Annie is very grateful to him because she is a much more anxious person she is a much more self-questioning

person than he is.