BOOK REVIEW / In brief: Pillion Riders - Elisabeth Russell Taylor: Peter Owen, pounds 14.95
After a sheltered upbringing Opal has been directed by her father into marriage with a 57-year-old German businessman. Soon she meets a young French composer who carries her off on his motorbike. Her lifestyle takes a nosedive, but this matters less than the discovery that she has stepped into a dead woman's shoes: Jean Claude has been keeping them unhealthily warm since his sister's suicide three years earlier. 'I was brought up to be useful to men,' says Opal. Certainly there's little she will not do if it makes her feel useful. Candour and self-knowledge without self-pity inform this unusual and delicate story.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies