A reader might wonder to what extent is Lodge´s character portrayed in Morris Zapp, Philip Swallow or Ralph Messenger. Messenger resembles Zapp in a way - he is a womanizer, married with two children, a kind of posh family, works at the university and during the 6-month-period you follow Messenger struggles, he changes into a different man. Messenger is a deep thinker and you suddenly find yourself influenced, drawn into the game and you start thinking about the things you might have never been, things quite common in one´s life but depicted in a comic manner. They are the things we do not usually observe or realize. Towards the end, Messenger is more human, or more thoughtful as a result of diagnosing a lump on his liver - a bit selfish but at least true - that is the way people act.

There are two women around him now - his wife Carrie and Helen. Carrie is an American so her lifestyle is completely different from Helen´s .Lodge perfectly managed to present the qualities of an American woman thanks to his own experience in the U.S. You might like more her than Helen. Carrie is a careful mother and wife, easy-going, sociable, fun-loving and at the same time having her own secrets. Helen seems to lack courage, she is hesitant, sensitive, rigorous, believes in conventions. Yet everyone has a secret. Helen learns that her dead husband Martin had had an affair with one of her students by reading the student´s novel-in-progress. Ralph, involved with a Czech grad student who is trying to blackmail him, is regularly unfaithful to Carrie. Another scientist is addicted to on-line child pornography. A major theme in the novel is just how the main protagonists are able to deceive one another. Like Helen, we can be two people at once. This is our glory, and the source of our deepest sadness.

The novel is organized in a curious manner, which requires a bit of investigating to catch on to. You get to hear Ralph's view of what he's planning to do, followed by Helen's view of what she's planning to do, followed by a narration of what happened, followed next by Ralph's and then Helen's view of what happened. As soon as you become involved in the story you can´t put the book down. You not only have delight from reading of its own but also from the way the author plays with your attention. But reading is not the right word - because you feel you listen to, you reveal, participate. You listen to Ralph, you read Helen´s diary as if it was a secret and you might be caught anytime - it is really exciting.
Helen´s diary depicts the plot in a traditional 1st person narrative. Ralph´s dictating to a Voicemaster is more speculating, in a way of stream of consciousness.
Quotation:
"Let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind
in the order in which they fall."