Keane directs [the] symmetrical and suspenseful plot [of Time After Time] with a dexterous hand. Staging a drama of revelation, she plants hints … and plays agilely with her characters' distorted perspectives. Keane proved herself a master of unreliable narration in Good Behaviour, letting deluded Aroon tell the story, at the same time betraying to us the true, even sadder, tale of her family's fate. This time Keane multiplies the myopia and shifts, artfully and comically, from one solipsistic Swift to the next…. Keane's feat is not only to make us correct for their skewed vision but also, improbably enough, to prompt us to care about their cantankerous views and fates. The brittle caricatures are still capable of surprising themselves, Keane convinces us—and curiosity thus roused can lead unexpectedly near to sympathy.

Keane depends on curiosity to spin out her old-fashioned fiction. So does cousin Leda to ensnare...