A Use of Riches

A Use of Riches is a book best read unprepared. I would suggest that anyone contemplating reading it should avoid any reviews or discussions, including this one. The narrative is initially confusing: it follows the reflections of the banker and art collector Rupert Craine as he walks through the destroyed streets behind St Paul's on the way to his lawyer's office, and like any thoughts his are dynamic rather than linear, influenced by all he observes. In this way the reader is given the background to the story which will be told, but it is a picture painted with the broadest strokes. And then on page 66 (of the vintage Penguin edition) an unexpected and shocking revelation brings everything suddenly into focus. Continued

A British banker travels to Italy to meet his wife's first husband's illegitimate son and arrange care for him. What he discovers there changes his life in a way he could not have imagined.

J.I.M. Stewart was a British professor of English. His novels are elegant, quiet stories, focusing mainly on school life, the art world, or upper middle class manners. He also wrote the marvelous Appleby mysteries under the name Michael Innes. If you enjoy wonderful, literate writing, and you happen to come across one of his novels - don't pass it up!