After a number of books on the "comedy-suspense" formula, John Gardner has attempted a "straight" novel of some size and complexity [Every Night's a Bullfight, published in the United States as Every Night's a Festival]. It is certainly a workmanlike job, and while it convinces, entertains and sometimes surprises, it lacks depth: everything about it smacks of professionalism and competence; but it doesn't make us think, it has no significance.

Douglas Silver is a well-known director of stage plays. He is appointed director of the tired, established Shireston Festival, set in a sleepy town and noted for its dullness. Silver perks it up. His season of four Shakespeare plays … all startle in some way or another….

[There are many] characters, clashes of temperament, enmities—so many, in fact, that the novel impresses as much through quantity as quality.

What detracts from the book is that Douglas Silver—the...