SOURCE: "Light as a Love Cake," in Manchester Guardian Weekly, July 17, 1994, p. 29.

[In the following positive review of Reef, Evans discusses the relationship between the two main characters—Triton, the narrator, and his employer, Mr. Salgado—and examines the comedic aspects of the novel.]

Mister Salgado's house has two white columns, and he asks about the failed coup as if it is unseasonable rain. The new houseboy "had never heard language so gently spoken … Ever after, when Mister Salgado spoke, I would be captivated". Salgado is a dreaming bachelor of impossible refinement. With a bachelor's deep sublimated passion for science, he collects endless data on the disappearing coral reef and, licking his lips with excitement, theorises to his friend Dias, the government accountant, about instruments of the future sensitive enough to record the still-circulating sound waves of his great-grandparents' conversation on their wedding night.

It's odd how familiar...