The Storyteller lurches along like a pubcrawler, tanking up here, spewing up there, and eventually falling flat on his face. The style does not help. Sillitoe is a garrulous writer, never making do with one adjective or simile if two spring to mind….

In the last third of the book Ernest is on a cruise-ship, employed to tell stories in the evenings. Also on board is Bernard, husband of a woman with whom Ernest has had an affair. Bernard is out for revenge. Or is he? Ernest tells the story of Ernest and Bernard, and 'story' and 'reality' merge. What is Sillitoe saying? That all fiction should dare to cross the frontier into fantasy? Or that no such frontier exists? Whatever the message, it seems to me that, somewhere at sea, storyteller Sillitoe loses control of storyteller Ernest's story. (p. 499)

John Mellors, "Mother Trouble" (© British Broadcasting Corp. 1979; reprinted...