Status Updates From Ross And Tom: Two American ...

'His death had cheated them of meeting and of sharing their parallel experiences. He realised he had been putting off a letter to him, believing that chance would bring them together. He was certain Lockridge had some secret for him, or vice versa, an insight which in the sharing could have helped them both.'

I hate how Leggett treats Tom's one-sided love for Carol Lynn as some complex limerent torture but at the same time flippantly dismisses poor Frenchy Solem's one-sided love for Tom. His representation of Tom's thoughts on her are equally squalid. 'In contrast to these nimble fillies there was something ruminant about her,' he writes, and 'she was as easy as an old slipper, warm and responsive'. I hope Frenchy sued.

'Ross protested that one simply did not cut a work of art, while Carol Brandt insisted that the cuts she had in mind would result in a better, to say nothing of a more salable, book. [...] Brandt showed no sign of weakening. Nor did Ross. When he asked if she thought cutting would improve War and Peace she astonished him by replying "I most certainly do," and arguing it forcefully.'

I was fine with Ross being a pathological showman and gasbag; him being an inattentive husband in company is, as far as I'm concerned, unforgiveable. There's nothing worse - party-wise - than feeling like a piece of paper stuck to a shoe, or a spectre-at-the-feast.