When the Green Woods Laugh

Publicized as completing the trilogy of the Larkin family (which however grew to a series of five novels), this book both celebrates the Larkin love of the English countryside and pokes fun at urban myths about country life. William Blake's "Laughing Song" in Songs of Innocence is quoted at the front of the volume and provides the book's title. Pop Larkin's womanizing, or more precisely his disinterest in the viper-like Corinne Perigo, brings him legal trouble, which he naturally escapes. The novel ends, as did its predecessors, in a grand party, this time to christen a garish new swimming pool and to celebrate Mariette's pregnancy.