[The Middle Ground] takes the form of protracted flashbacks, filling us in on the essential details of the characters' lives and the way they interact in their close friendships….

These thematic objectives are capably and seriously approached, but dissatisfactions with The Middle Ground arise over its unnecessary complications of structure. The haphazard temporal shifts Drabble employs in the narrative … bring their own stylistic problems….

Here the syntactical demands of the language only get in the way, giving the narrative a somewhat breathless anecdotal tone and producing a strong inclination in the reader to skip the toiling flashbacks and return to the more direct dramatic flow of the present.

However, the irritation with this method wears off as most of the lengthy reminiscences are dealt with and as the novel progresses. The elisions between past and present, reflection and action, are achieved more smoothly as the gap narrows between...