I neglected to register this immediately so I am guessing at where I got it. I think from the Little Free Library on San Luis Drive in San Luis Obispo, CA. It is a bit wrinkly, probably absorbed some water during the rains.

When I started to read this I realized I had already read it. So I looked up my review. Here is my review of another copy:

Quite a diversion. I read this in a day, finishing it at night, after which I had some odd dreams. I found it a little bit disturbing as well as funny.

Two former lovers of a woman, Molly, who died early from a degenerative disease, meet at her funeral. Clive is a well-known composer while Vernon is editor of a newspaper that is losing circulation fast.

Molly's husband later discovers compromising photographs she had taken of a current Foreign Secretary who will likely be making a bid for Prime Minister. He offers them to Vernon to publish, for a price. Vernon sees that publication could well destroy the Foreign Secretary's chances. His staff is opposed to their publication. When he discusses the situation with Clive, a long-time friend, he finds that Clive is not on his side either. Thus begins the separation.

We get to follow each man as he justifies his own actions in different situations, as each increasingly finds fault with the other (even as they try to set things right from time to time). Ultimately each chooses to consider a pact they made with each other as a way to end the rift forever.

The spare writing style has the effect of throwing us into a loaded scene before we're sure we're ready. At the same time, though, the wit and understanding of human failings makes the story funny and, at least in the larger sense, real.

inside the box.