Cross-Purposes

This novel moves beyond the largely autobiographical concerns of the author's earlier experiments in the novel genre ('Changing Worlds' and 'Fixed Limits') towards a more fictional integrity which led him by the nose, so to speak, into contexts and situations largely outside the domain of his personal experience. To be sure, the subjectivity of his earlier works is in some degree still present (witness the opening chapter ... with its highly philosophical considerations), but it is now subordinated to the unfolding narrative ... as we follow the fortunes of James Kelly, a self-styled philosopher, through successive love-affairs which clash with his loyalties to friends and benefactors alike, culminating in deception and tragedy for all concerned.