The Needle's Eye [Paperback]

The title of this book: `The Needle's Eye' refers to a text in the New Testament where it says "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter to kingdom of God"; and this is the worry of one of the main characters in this novel, Rose Vassiliou, a young woman with a strong, social conscience who gives away the bulk of her inheritance to a charity in Africa.

At the start of this novel, we meet Simon Camish, an unhappily married, but successful barrister, who meets Rose Vassiliou at a dinner party given by friends in their London home. Simon is intrigued by Rose, whom he vaguely remembers reading about in the papers some years before, when she had been made a ward of court by her wealthy parents in order to prevent her marrying Christopher Vassiliou, a young Greek, whom her parents considered unsuitable and only interested in Rose for her money. After the dinner party, Simon offers Rose a lift home and finds that she lives in a run down part of London with her three children, having married Christopher, and later divorced him on the grounds of cruelty. Rose invites Simon into her home and whilst he is there she confides in him her worries about her ex-husband who is challenging her for custody of their children.

Although Simon is not a family lawyer, he agrees to help Rose in whatever capacity he can. As he gets to know Rose over the following few weeks, visiting her in her shabby, but comfortable home, Simon finds himself admiring her for her honesty, her morals and her nobleness of character - which he feels is in striking contrast to the social pretentiousness and acquisitiveness of his self-centred wife, Julie. And, as the weeks pass, he finds his admiration for Rose develops into something deeper. However, when Simon unexpectedly meets Christopher Vassiliou at a drinks party and they fall into conversation, he sees that Christopher and Rose's relationship is much more complex than he has been led to believe and he starts to have doubts about whether Rose has been entirely honest with him and whether she really is what she appears to be. In fact is it altruism that directs Rose's actions, or has she placed her own moral beliefs above the needs of those close to her?

This is not another novel about marital infidelity and illicit sex - in fact there is no technical infidelity to speak of in this carefully conceived and deftly written story. This is a measured, thoughtful and interesting novel, where the author has given her characters the power of deep introspection and self-analysis to explore themes of identity, idealism, ambition, responsibility and personal morality. I must say that I did wonder at times, if there was perhaps just a little too much character analysis taking place, as the author neatly dissects each of her characters, or has them analyse themselves closely, which means the action is mostly restricted to that of the cerebral variety. However, this makes for an intelligent and thought-provoking read, and Margaret Drabble writes so well and with such perceptive observation that, for me, her novels can be nothing other than a pleasure to read.

4 Stars.

The title of this novel is taken from a saying of Jesus recorded in the New Testament: - "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God". These words were spoken to a wealthy young man who had demurred at the suggestion that he should sell all his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor in order to inherit eternal life. Margaret Drabble's novel, however, is about a woman who has done precisely what that young man was unwilling to do.

Rose Bryanston is an heiress who, on attaining her majority at the age of 21, takes two steps which alienate her from her wealthy parents. Firstly, she marries her Greek-Cypriot boyfriend Christopher Vassiliou, of whom her parents strongly disapprove. Secondly, she disposes of her inherited fortune of £20,000, giving it to build a school in a small African country. (We learn that Rose was born in 1937, so these events would have taken place in 1958, when £20,000 would be worth a great deal more than it would today).

The main part of the story takes place in 1968-69. (Although the novel was written in 1972, the date can be ascertained from references to the pre-decimal currency abolished in 1971 and veiled references to the My Lai massacre and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia). Rose is now divorced from Christopher who proved to be a violent, abusive husband, and is living in relative poverty with her three children in the Hornsey-Muswell Hill area. (In the sixties this was an impoverished, run-down part of North London, although today it is considerably more affluent than it was then). The main policy developments all arise from Christopher's attempts to challenge Rose for custody of the children.

Apart from Rose herself, the most important character is not Christopher, but Simon Camish, a barrister who befriends Rose and advises her on her case, even though he is not a specialist in family law. Simon's speciality is trade union and industrial relations law, something highly topical at the time Drabble was writing, as Ted Heath's Conservative government had just passed a controversial Industrial Relations Act. Simon's own marriage is an unhappy one, and although Rose is not physically attractive he finds himself drawn to her gentle idealism, which contrasts sharply with his wife Julie's social-climbing snobbery. Their friendship, however, never develops into a sexual relationship; this is not (thank God) just another "adultery-in-Hampstead" type romance.

One of Drabble's preoccupations in this book is the way in which people's circumstances are condition by their social background. Simon and Rose have, in a way, moved in opposite directions. He was born into genteel poverty in Newcastle, but has achieved success in his profession and comparative affluence, despite which he still clings to his working-class roots and his left-wing idealism. (Out of deference to his background, he always acts for the unions, even when he thinks that they are in the wrong). This is one of the major differences between him and Julie, who is from a more middle-class background and lacks a social conscience. (Her father, like Rose's, was a successful businessman, although merely well-to-do as opposed to spectacularly wealthy).

Rose was born into wealth but has voluntarily chosen to live in poverty. Yet though she may seem to Simon like the St Francis of Muswell Hill, her apparently selfless act has led not so much to the Kingdom of God as to the impoverishment of her children as well as of herself, to the breakdown of her marriage and to her alienation from her parents. Even in Africa she has achieved little; the school was burnt down in civil disturbances shortly after it was built and much of the money was siphoned off into the pockets of local politicians. This raises the question of whether one can live by Christian idealism alone, and whether Rose's apparent selflessness might just be another form of selfishness, the indulging of her own ideals above the needs of her family.

"The Needle's Eye" will not appeal to those who expect their fiction to be packed with action or dramatic incident, but its author displays a great talent for psychological analysis comparable to that of her older contemporary Iris Murdoch and for creating believable, well-rounded characters. This was the third book by Margaret Drabble which I have read. The others, "A Summer Bird Cage" and "The Millstone", were both youthful works, written while the author was in her mid-twenties, and I found both rather slight, lightweight works. This one, by contrast, although Drabble was only slightly older (33) when she wrote it, is a novel of much greater depth.