Back Trouble

This tender study of a middle-aged London man who finally completes his long-delayed passage into adulthood is a novel of small pleasures that ultimately exceeds the sum of its parts. Philip Scrivener has a novel's worth of problems, including the spinal difficulties of the title, which give him time to pen this first-person flashback, and a pair of intrusive parents who pester him with alarming regularity. He's also dodging creditors, who are after the assets from his failing self-help publishing company, and trying to maintain a problematic relationship with Kate, a visiting New Zealander whose visa is due to expire. Chambers (Uncertain Terms) depicts the compassionate Philip's chronic reluctance to act in a series of gentle, comic scenes, rendering her cowardly hero's family as endearingly eccentric while unmawkishly presenting the gradually deepening feelings between him and Kate. When events finally force Philip into action, his decisions are satisfying and believable, if a bit predictable. In an effective less-is-more approach, Chambers finds fresh life in the well-worn turf of family and relationships. (Dec.)