I realized I hadn't really read any literary novels from the 70's, so I think I just googled "great 1970's American novels", picked a list at random and this was on it. Glad I read it!

There was a pretty large and conspicuous gap between the brilliance of Paula Fox's prose and my distaste for the characters and their world that made finishing this 190 page novel a longer process than it needed to be. Basically every single page has at least one brilliant turn of phrase or insight into the pathetic nature of the human heart, but a story about middle-aged Brooklyn gentrifies having generalized existential dread (represented metaphorically by a bite from a cat which may or may not be rabid) about their dissatisfaction and fear & hatred of poor people and minorities was a lot to swallow. Pretty much every character who is working class or person of color are off-putting slobs, maniacs or trash people. The upper-class don't come across great either, but they're almost all afforded psychological complexity that the poorer characters aren't. Granted, most of the book is seen through the perspective of the main character and these observations could be lumped in with that but there really isn't any point in the book where the objectivity of these observations is challenged.

But Fox's writing truly is incredible, and compelled me through it. For the characters that get granted depth, Fox is able to to sketch out very complicated humans very quickly, with humor and grace. I had never heard of her before (though apparently she is Courtney Love's grandmother?) but I'm definitely interested in reading more. Wondering if anyone else here is familiar with this book or her other work.