Caroline Blackwood has published a collection of stories and journalistic pieces, three short novels, and a cookbook. With this relatively small output she has earned a high and growing reputation in England. Her novels have won almost unanimous praise from the critics, along with some wry expressions of discomfiture. Her first book, For All That I Found There (1973), provoked a chorus of shudders at her pessimism and misanthropy. The review in the Times Literary Supplement was headed "Hopeless Cases" and asserted: "reading them consecutively one can only repeat, how near the precipice this time"" Francis King in the Sunday Telegraph characterized the "constant theme" of the stories as "destructiveness." Gabriele Annan in the Listener described it as "the unbearable," remarking that "she does not seem to like human beings at all." Reviewing Blackwood's latest novel in the light of her whole career, Peter Kemp in the Listener began...