Drabble's novels, particularly their conclusions, are structured to expose the narrowness and inadequacy of … moral judgments by upsetting our expectations. As conditioned novel readers we anticipate conclusions which will confirm our values and sympathies, rewarding the hero or heroine with success and marriage. Throughout Thank You All Very Much, for example, we await Rosamund's declaration to George of his paternity and their subsequent union; therefore we are … initially frustrated by her silence. Yet the final lines of the novel demonstrate that our taste for traditional happy endings may tempt us to misunderstand Rosamund's action. It proceeds not from frigidity, neurosis or the expectations of others, but from Rosamund's developing acceptance of her unique self. She opts for a relationship with her child alone because Octavia is all she wants at this point. She recognizes that this choice is a bad investment but reminds us that most other passionate...