Walking Naked

Laura is happily married, a mother, and a successful novelist. Although prey to night terrors, she is adept at smoothing the disorder of reality into controlled prose. Interweaving memory, conversation, and reflection, Walking Naked telescopes the whole of Laura's life—childhood, marriages, triumphs, and disappointments—into a day in which the past and the 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, who is imprisoned on a drugs charge. At its close, the possibility of death within the family brings unresolved conflicts to center stage, and Laura strips herself of the posturing and self-deceit with which she has cloaked her vulnerability. Continually surprising, witty, and often disquieting, this is one of Nina Bawden's most impressive novels.