Edwin Spindrift, a dedicated linguist, is in the hospital with a tumor that might also be the cause of his lost libido. Meanwhile, his wife revels in her freedom from his bilabial fricatives by pushing the concept of an open marriage to its limit. Frustrated with endless tests and fearful of his impending operation, Edwin escapes from the hospital and embarks on a number of weird and humorous adventures with gay masochistic watch fences, Jewish twins who own an after-hours bar, and a dog named Nigger. As his situation gets more desperate, his previously absolute morality begins to falter, illustrating very keenly the subjective nature of morality.

Burgess wrote this book in the 50s, and it certainly shows to a modern reader. Described on its cover as “one of the funniest of all Burgess novels”, it neglects to mention that most of the humor comes out of social situations and mores that are no longer relevant and are lost on the modern reader. There are still comical situations, but throughout the book I had a vague feeling that I was missing a lot of the humor that depended on this professor interacting with Cockney lowlifes. ( )