[AnotherCat]

I finished this a few days ago now and in general I agree with the comments already made. I found it an enjoyable read too, one of the few novels I have hit in recent times that I actually looked forward to getting back to whenever I could; the short chapters made that easier as it could be slipped in between other activities.

A few things I noticed-

The book starts out with short sentences and paragraphs and what struck me as almost the type of prose found in books for younger readers of that period. Direct, simple and easy to read, but there was enough meat in the story to not make me think the book was going to be a trite.

But as the book moved on the structure changed with the sentences and paragraphs growing longer and less direct, etc.. Whether this was by accident, or was a tool to make a longish book easy to get into during the early stages, or some other motive such as mirroring and hence giving more drama to the complexities of Phillip's life I don't know. Or perhaps as Maugham proceeded with his writing of it more and more detail and story development came to mind as the whole book built in it? Unfortunately the author is no longer with us to tell us, unless there is a quote from him somewhere on that.

I found the story line quite predictable, not in the exact detail but generally with respect to the direction and outcomes that each major character's story was heading. For example, right from the time Phillip first meets Sally, and despite the little interaction between them then, the clues were there that there was going to be some sort of relationship develop. As the book progressed the clues get stronger and one could see there was likely to be a romantic relationship and later still one could guess the outcomes resulting from the planned week hop picking with her family.

Despite that, the story line was so strong and straightforward, and the prose so free of fluff that this predictability did not distract from my enjoyment of the book at all.

Phillip struck me as just being foolish and unaware and I was not inclined to attribute his problems to his upbringing. I know this is just one example of a similar real life case but both my wife's parents were dead by the time she was 12 years of age and she had a very difficult time within her "adoptive" family (who were relations who made use of her rather than nurtured her); my feeling is that her experience precipitated sensibility and awareness rather than anything else. That said there is a widespread claim that the book is autobiographical with respect to his childhood (there are certainly close parallels), however in the few brief biographical notes I have seen there does not seem to be any evidence that he was as foolish and unaware as Phillip was. I have obtained a biography to read and wonder when I get to it if there is anything to say on this in it.