SAXBY FOR GOD

by Richard Haley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 1974

After the death of his daughter -- the only thing he loved -- with which the novel almost ends, Bob Saxby submerges himself in pills, liquor and old films. One of them might have been Room at the Top. Bob Saxby, a careerist administrator has been working his way up in local (British) politics, and ambition with sometimes urgent sex seems to be the only currencies he uses. He has had a good working marriage with Gwen whom he acknowledges as convenient; he remembers, through a fume of sentiment, a girl he thought he really loved; and he submits to the A-level secretary who is well endowed elsewhere for what she offers him -- apparently with more genuine feeling than he had suspected. That's about it -- readable enough, realistic enough, with some of the sleekness and slickness which is also reminiscent of the original. Although Saxby has learned in his own impervious fashion that ""there was no place for all those films about young men making the grade and walking towards sunshine and music with Elizabeth Taylor."" Still you can always settle for second best -- Saxby does.

Pub Date: May 14, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION