Abiding City

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Gareth Benton's miserable marriage and rule-breaking Foreign Service career lead him, in ruined middle age, to Canterbury Cathedral, where he spots fanatical eyes observing the Pope during a historic ceremony Former ambassador Halley ( Simultaneous Equations ) convincingly charts the perilous waters of life in the British foreign service for one Gareth Benton and wife, Patience, who voyage expectantly from London to Berlin and then Moscow only to founder in the shoals of Russian paranoia. Gareth was instilled early with the notion that professional success derives from education, conduct, and a wife chosen according to societal expectations. Ultimately, his ambition, cold condescension, and duty-bound attitudes destroy his marriage and career. The author deals exclusively with character throughout this well-constructed novel, using direct, fluid prose and objective third-person narrative to form vital, changing people finally able to accept the realities of life. He uses church liturgy unobtrusively and effectively to symbolize the stages in Gareth's personal history. Recommended. Rex E. Klett, Anson Cty. Lib., Wadesboro, N.C.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.