Point of View

Most of the twenty-two stories in Maeve Binchy's London Transports are told by impersonal third person narrators, all obviously female, and most omniscient. None seems inordinately prejudiced for or against their main characters, but in a few cases they describe events tongue-in-cheek. They deal with situations ranging from flaunting activities that are still considered taboo (e.g., abortion and wife-swapping), against a backdrop of a rather far-advanced sexual revolution. Most of the couples depicted are not married. Men and women seem equally likely to take lovers, although women generally get the worst of situations. Only in "King's Cross" is job discrimination against women systematically and somewhat stridently addressed. The phenomenon underlies many other stories, however.

Only three stories feature first-person narrators who are heavily involved in the action: "Holland Park," "Notting Hill Gate," and "Oxford Circus." For no clear reason, these narrators seem to take pains...