Status Updates From Ending Up

This scene is great for teaching POV:

Before the doctor had finished, Shorty came in with coffee and biscuits on a bent silver tray. He stayed a little longer that was altogether necessary, constantly glancing at Marigold in a way the doctor saw as indicating concern and Marigold herself as pretended concern hiding utter indifference, but in fact amounted to pretended concern hiding hostile curiosity. (p.79)

3// Shorty: The servant and former lover of Bernard, who spends his time looking for hidden bottles of alcohol.
4// George: A distinguished former history professor who is largely bedridden and quiet, though intellectually sharp.
5// Marigold: A frail, forgetful woman who struggles with her failing memory and is often the target of the others' malice

1// Adela: A miserly woman who dominates the household and is obsessed with saving money.
2// Bernard: Adela’s brother, a former military man who plays malicious, cruel pranks on his housemates.

Ending Up (1974) by Kingsley Amis features five elderly residents in a shared countryside home, who are navigating old age with rancorous humor and petty malice.