Although Darkness Visible (1979) is one of [Golding's] most forceful novels and it is certainly one of his most ambitious, it is surprisingly disorganized. Here we have the moral discussion placed right at the heart of society in the nineteen-sixties, as made familiar by the hallmarks of decline we read about in our newspapers: marital breakdown, sexual promiscuity and deviation, prejudices of all kinds and an attempted kidnapping. Some of the book is reminiscent of The Pyramid; the crises of youth experienced by both Matty and Sophy are told with the same witty compassion that tracked Olly through his adolescence. But there is also a far more sinister element. The first part of the narrative is primarily concerned with Matty, the second with Sophy, and in the third they, and most of the subsidiary characters, come together in the kidnapping with which the plot climaxes. That might appear taut...