One of the astonishing feats of "The Ice Age" is the way in which Drabble incorporates the ever-increasing junk pile of current public disasters into a thematic background that never appears journalistic. The danger is, of course, that we all know about the economic plight of England, about the loss of hope, vision, empire, and that the facts she gives us may become a repeat of the evenings news. There is much open discussion in the novel about the "terrible times." A crude South African besieges Alison Murray, once a great beauty, with shallow attacks on her country. In the past Alison has always been able to escape hard facts by turning to her mirror, but that comfort is gone: "The country was growing old. Like herself. The scars on the hillsides were the wrinkles around her own eyes: irremovable. How could one learn to grow old?" Such...