INJURY TIME

Winner of both the prestigious Booker Prize and the Whitbread Prize in 1977, Bainbridge's darkly ironic look at British mores reads like a chronicle of the disenfranchised. A very married Edward is sleeping with Binny, who resents being a "backstreet wife." She insists that he invite his friends to her home for a dinner party. This he does with great trepidation. When the evening takes a disturbing turn, chaos ensues. Timothy West is completely at ease in his performance of characters who are frequently unpleasant, stricken with ennui, occasionally drunk, and not always truthful, each trying to make order where there is none. His men are appropriately arrogant, and his women wander helplessly through lives which elude them. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]