Laura is happily married, a mother and a successful novelist. Although she is prey to night terrors, she is adept at smoothing the disorder of reality into controlled prose. Walking Naked telescopes the whole of Laura’s life- childhood, marriages, triumphs and disappointments- into a day in which the past and present converge. It begins with a game of tennis played for duty rather than amusement and progresses, via an afternoon party of old friends and jaded emotions, to a bewildering visit to Laura’s son, imprisoned on a drugs’ charge. At its close, the possibility of death within the family hauls unresolved conflicts centre stage and Laura strips herself of the posturing and self-deceit with which she has cloaked her vulnerability.
Continually surprising, witty and often disquieting, Walking Naked is one of Nina Bawden’s most impressive novels. ‘Her heroine stands before us … a looking glass through which to see ourselves’ Cosmopolitan
Paperback:
£10.00
Published 02/11/2006