[In Sleeps Six] Frederic Raphael writes about the infidelities and other infelicities in middle-class marriages; typical titles are 'Acute Triangle', 'Similar Triangles', 'Upstairs, Downstairs' and 'Bridal Suite'. His characters are usually rich, randy, intelligent, unscrupulous and unhappy—the literary grandchildren of Scott Fitzgerald's beautiful and damned generation. Raphael would be a better writer if he did not try so hard to make every sentence wittier than the last. Too often the soufflé fails to rise and instead of an airy wit we have a soggy weight…. However, there is also much to admire in Sleeps Six, in particular Raphael's hip humour in his story of the wisecracking New York nympho and her maddeningly sedate psychiatrist. (p. 255)

John Mellors, "Psychic and Mental," in The Listener (© British Broadcasting Corp. 1979; reprinted by permission of John Mellors), Vol. 102, No. 2625, August 23, 1979, pp. 254-55.∗