Arnold has an obsessive affair with Vera – who is friend to his wife, Polly. Vera is a committed Christian and he, an atheist. Feelings of guilt and betrayal abound with Arthur’s enforced conversation to Christianity and the resulting fallout with both spouses. A subtle, thought provoking and unsettling read.
It wasn't exactly triumph that Arnold felt when he went downstairs to live out the rest of the evening of eating and chatting and television, but a sense close to that - that he and Vera had done it, they had done it and had got away with it. No-one had been harmed physically or mentally, and life was carrying on as normal. It was true that they had planted something in their lives that could, at any time, burst into flames, but if they handled everything as calmly and as carefully as they had that first day, there seemed no reason the current of things couldn't continue indefinitely. It was almost as if without any planning at all that he and Vera slipped into their adulterous routine. Amateurs who had discovered a talent for something they'd never dreamed of before, their lovemaking session of that afternoon was repeated the following Wednesday... on through the summer term.
