For me, on the believability scale so much of this book rates near zero, that it becomes unbelievable as a whole. This means that any potentially valuable exploration of mother-child relationships just gets lost a sea of drivel and garbage. It's highly likely that Ms O'Brien is writing on a higher level that the one on which I operate, so the problem is with me rather than with the book, but after nearly 200 pages I gave up in disgust.

It started well but then progressed steadily downhill. I found myself really struggling by the time i reached her description of the main character's LSD trip, but the book degenerated further from there.

This was the passage that finally provoked me to throw the book across the room. It describes an event in the main character's hospital room, in which she is visited by a man (Boris) with whom she used to have a relationship of sorts, and the man's new partner, Olga.:

"....Boris took Olga's leather drawstring bag and held it upside down, so that the coins rolled along the floor, and then he made Olga get down and pick them up while he kicked her amiably and she whimpered, "It hurts Kermit...it hurts, Kermit" as she did the circuit of the room."

If I was in that room I'd walk out shaking my head, and never talk to any of the people again.

If she thinks this is worth writing about, I'm not going to read Edna O'Brien ever again.

There is a valid point to be made about the tragedy of male-female relationships, but creating such a ridiculous parody of a 'relationship' surely can't encourage anyone to take the issue seriously. ( )