Desperate characters door Paula Fox

The story A wealthy middleaged couple goes through a marriage crisis when a stray cat bites the woman, Sophie, and the man, Otto, splits up with his longterm business companion, both with a nasty aftertaste. She is very worried that she might have caught a disease because of the cat, and he finds it hard to handle accusations addressed to him by his former business partner. On top of that their marriage is put under strain by these events. Their marriage survives in the end but the book describes their angst with a kind of subtle style, not at all in any sentimental or whining way. Throughout the book the reader not only learns of the emotions of the main character, but the other characters get described too, be it directly or indirectly (through other people's eyes). Through dicussions and conversations the character's personalities are revealed like a piece of cloth slowly pulled from a new statue . . . The main character Sophie tends to be hysterical at times, but otherwise she's really sensible and reasonable. She's intellectual but that doesn't mean her feelings don't overrule her more rational thoughts.
My opinion I liked this book because through it I could get a taste of what it is like to look through the eyes of people who have half of their lives behind them, instead of me having only a small part to look back to. Another thing which I liked was the portrait of the sixties which the book gives. It's funny because usually you read about what dirty tricks youth pulled but now it's from a whole other point of view: the old generation. Although this is not an important part of the book, but it's there in the background and it amused me.