Men: grey, feckless, mean

Press, 21 July 1984, Page 20

Men: grey, feckless, mean

Occasions of Sin. By Rachel Billington. Penguin, 1984. 304 pp. $7.95 (paperback).

(Reviewed by

Agnes-Mary Brooke)

Indirectly, the most interesting aspect of this novel (which the publishers remind us is by the daughter of Lord Longford and sister of Lady Antonia Fraser) is that none of the men come out of it very well. Miles, husband of the inevitably beautiful Laura, is a grey personality. Unintentionally or not, he is a parody of the judge which he aims to be. John, Laura’s brother, is amusing, but feckless and inconstant. Martin, Laura’s lover, shows himself capable of meanness, and lacks permanent commitment. The women come off better. Katie, her sister-in-law, tolerant of her husband’s straying, is triumphant in her motherhood. Nell, though emancipated to the point of

eccentricity, seems to be vindicated by marrying into a title; Martin’s mother, by her acceptance of Laura as the mother of her grandchild. This is yet another novel of the dilemma a woman faces when,, formerly happily married, she must choose between a lover and her family. It is not another Anna Karenina; nor does Laura’s dilemma have a special poignancy. Indeed there seems, for her, little dilemma at all. The book is elegantly, but evasively written. Descriptions of events, emotions fade out in a fashion convenient for the author. Rachel Billington does not seem to have intended this, but her novel emerges as one about a rich, spoiled, self-indulgent woman, who apart from going round muttering “occasion of sin,” seems to come to fairly easy terms with her conscience, and to be vindicated in the author’s eye.