What an enjoyable time I had reading this novel. In a Midsummer Night's dream-like setting, a group of people, all battered by love, come together to have their past and present interpreted by a famous fortune teller. A delicious funfair of a book.
`You were the only one who did not come to me for a reading. Why is that? You think you are superior to the knowledge I have? My knowledge goes back to before the time of the pharaohs. You think this House of Lords gives you protection from fate? Your fate is already written. You are the only one who cannot read it. Do you know why?'
Viv shook her head in a sort of trance. Madame Sosostris gave a mild laugh, clearly not directed at Viv.
`Because you do not know how to read.'
`But,' blurted Viv, 'I have a degree in—'
`Ignorance?' said Madame Sosostris calmly. 'I know people with ten degrees who lack the most basic understanding of the strangeness of life. Take you, for example. I look at your face and immediately like an open book everything is there. You want a festival, but don't know where.'
`How do you know—'
`People like you do not know what you are doing. If you're not careful you will invite the dead
