Interesting Subjects.
This is a somewhat lumpy biography of all the Maughams, in that the chapters seem to jump disconcertingly from one Maugham to another. Perhaps it would have been better had the author integrated all the characters more seamlessly. Oh, it's all there - the gossip, the avarice, the love affairs, the louche life, the bitchiness, and in a sense you can't go wrong with such marvellous subjects. But you get the impression of a patchwork job, albeit with all the materials and colours available.
Robin Maugham's life reads like a Greek tragedy of a flawed hero who was doomed from the start. He was commended for his bravery during the Second World War, living thereafter with slivers of metal in his brain, having headaches and exorcising them with drink and drugs, all noted by his disapproving uncle, Somerset; an unlikeable man judging a rather likeable one. All the Maughams are scrutinised: Freddie and Nellie, Robin's father and mother, Syrie Maugham, and of course, Somerset whose lovers, Gerald Haxton, and the apparently avaricious Alan Searle are given their airing, but in the end, there is a niggling suspicion that this book could have been more interesting than it is.
