With microscopic accuracy, Amis chooses here to examine the slow inevitable erosion of marriage, and to document the machinery of adultery. Jenny and Bunn live in a building inhabited by many dissimilar people at all levels of British society, all of whose relationships, heterosexual and homosexual, have one thing in common: they are in a constant state of flux.

Much of this world, literary London in the late sixties, is seen through Jenny's eyes. As has always been the case with his writings, Amis displays his usual insight into how women think and behave, and, of all his memorable female characters, Jenny is perhaps the most human and sympathetic. Her essential goodness often inhibits her vision, which accounts for much of the humor in the book. Although she has now lived many years away from the provincial northern city where she has born, she has still not fully adjusted to the ways of the south, nor can she approve, try as she might, of the way more sophisticated people are allowed to behave. Her inherent small town decency is in distinct contrast with all other the self-absorbed urban characters around her, including her now very errant husband.

It is impossible to read Amis' novels without sensing the autobiographical in his work--so much of what he writes about follows the pattern of his own erratic sybaritic life. Not only does Amis hold up the mirror to the society in which he has lived, but he uses it to examine himself, his violent prejudices and obvious weaknesses, with painful honesty. Men in his books are often charming and sexy, but ultimately selfish and unreliable. It is Jenny, the female principle, who comes to see all and forgive all.