Joan Barfoot is a dependable chronicler of the malaise of women in our time. In her eighth novel the woman in question is a childless middle-aged widow in comfortable circumstances. Her belated journey of self-discovery involves her in relationships with three men. The longest one is with the eponymous Edgar, a lawyer, who shortly before his death walked out on their marriage of 20 years.

The opening scene is an interior monologue by the widow as she attends her delinquent husband’s funeral and remembers the painful circumstances of their separation. Having celebrated his freedom by acquiring a red convertible, he told her, “I’ve had more thrills in a few weeks with that car under me than I’ve had for years with you under me.”

It is a curious feature of the novel that the wit and sprightliness of the beginning is not sustained. The subsequent writing seems thin and pale in comparison with the first chapter. Nevertheless, Gwen Stone’s continuing interior communication with Edgar and her encounters with a very young bartender and an older poet are quick-paced and highly readable.

There is a danger, however, in describing familiar characters and stock situations with which readers can identify. It is that of toppling over into cliché and stereotype and Barfoot does not entirely escape it in her descriptions of the lawyer, the poet, or even of her heroine.

But David, the troubled young bartender, stands out as a masterly creation – quirky, endearing, and totally original. Barfoot’s sympathetic treatment of him and of a cluster of minor characters is reminiscent of Anne Tyler. Like Tyler, she affirms the worth of ordinary people and validates the lives of those often dismissed as losers.

Barfoot also excels at conveying the discrepancy between outer appearances and the complex inner lives of her characters, and in showing how that discrepancy makes good relationships almost impossible. It seems that only between parents and children is a depth of sympathy attainable. But in spite of all difficulties, her characters do mature and work toward fulfilling lives as the novel reaches its satisfying conclusion.