Candida Wilson is embarking on a new life after her divorce. She may well be in late middle age but she's going to attempt a fresh start in London.
The novel begins in an intimate diary-like format. Candida reveals her relationship with her daughters is less than she'd like but at the same time she makes no apologies for perhaps not being the perfect mother either and maybe even not loving her husband as much as she should have. She makes pointed observations about her friends and admits that if she is to make an accurate account then it must be the truth.
Now Candida's days revolve around writing in her diary and visiting the health club, which was once an adult education center where Candida used to take a class on Virgil's "Aeneid." Still, slowly Candida makes some new friends and keeps in touch with her old friends.
When she receives an unexpected inheritance Candida thinks it's time for her and her friends to embark on a trip of a lifetime. They women will make a mythic voyage to follow Aeneas own voyage from Carthage to Naples.
The novel shifts from diary entries to third person narrative and while I enjoyed the story of the Seven Sisters discovering a new world and themselves along the way, I did feel that something of the tone was lost. I wanted to know more of Candida's unflinchingly honest thoughts.
By the end, there is yet another narrator to the novel which while it did serve to add another dimension, mainly is the narrator reliable, I believe this took away from the novel on the whole. I would have preferred to read only one point of view. Still I did enjoy this and now will look for other novels by Margaret Drabble.
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Added 03/07