Deborah Moggach: These Foolish Things

Reviewed by By SUSAN JACOBS

When 70-something Norman Purse is thrown out of his latest retirement home for inappropriate behaviour, he descends on his daughter, Pauline, and her husband, Dr Ravi Kapoor.

The harassed doctor is already in trouble over the case of elderly Muriel Donnelly who, left on a trolley untreated in a hospital cubicle for two days after being mugged, becomes a clamorous media symbol of the failure of the NHS. But, as Kapoor wearily tells his wife, the real reason treatment was delayed was Muriel's refusal to be treated by a darkie.

On the home front, Norman's preoccupations with his bowels, imaginary sexual prowess and penchant for Indian takeaway jokes are bad enough, but after he almost burns the house down while boiling up his filthy handkerchiefs in Ravi's favourite curry pot, enough is enough.

Together with his wheeler-dealer cousin Sonny, Ravi sets up a retirement home for British pensioners in Bangalore, and entices Norman to go with the prospect of voluptuous women eager to practise the Karma Sutra on mature gentlemen.

What begins as a zany comedy of manners becomes a meditation on the trials of growing old in an unrecognisable world. Just how pensioners (yes, even Muriel) are persuaded to uproot and live out their twilight years in a decaying home in a dusty Indian city reveals the extent of social alienation of the aged in modern Britain.

Whether it is because of dwindling finances mismanaged by patronising children, loneliness, or even the dreary English weather, by now we are hooked into learning what happens to this unlikely group of people as they face the inevitable problems, practical and emotional, in their new location.

In turn achingly funny and deeply poignant, this latest novel by the versatile Deborah Moggach explores themes of ageing, cultural understanding, death, family relationships and spiritual openness through superb characterisation and sharp dialogue. Even the least likeable characters are not immune to the charms of India as they learn truths about themselves and their lives and act on them with, in some cases, surprising results.

When middle-aged children, beset by frazzled, messy lives, come to visit, they too make some interesting discoveries, influenced by their parents' newfound tolerance, self-knowledge and streak of adventure.

So engrossing are the characters and narrative pace you hardly notice that a couple of plot threads seem a little too contrived and pat.

Beautifully written, bittersweet, quirky, strangely optimistic, this book is a delight.

* Chatto and Windus, $65

* Susan Jacobs is the author of Fighting With the Enemy: New Zealand POWs and the Italian Resistance.