While I'm resting my bum elbow on two pillows, it's hard for me to read heavy tomes and concentrate at the same time. So I moved ahead to our read scheduled for November 7, Three's Company by Alfred Duggan.
I have to admit that, ordinarily, I'm not a Duggan aficionado. However, this one has intrigued me.
The protagonist is neither hero nor villain, but an inept bungler, full of his own exalted ancestral heritage. The novel traces the life and times of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, magistrate, master of the horse, triumphator (but of what?), and finally triumvir and pontifex maximus. The novel is cleverly constructed, sometimes deliciously nasty, always engrossing, and in the end the reader's feelings about our 'hero' remain curiously mixed. Each chapter ends with a rather absentminded commentary from the famous Clodia Pulchra.
Enjoy the book! If your public library doesn't have it, you can get a rather inexpensive paperback.
