Does this index to the book itself indicate how utterly intriguing the story is?

Almighty 29
Antarctic 13
ants 12
Arbus (philosopher) 34
archaeology 35-9, 41
Ardennes in World War II 50-3
audience, invisible 63

Barthes, Roland
Elements of Semiology 82
bath 54-7
bathroom 32, 54-5, 83
Baxter, M.
Adventures in Housekeeping 79-80
Beagle 5-6
bed 10-14
biological powder 10-11
Black Death 39
Blake, William 68-71, 95, 99, 101, 105, 111, 112
blood 10-12
bodies 9, 76
books 79
Brazil 7-8
Brillo pad 93
Brothers Karamazov
sequel 72-8, 80, 112

camels 35-6, 94
carpet-grub 103-4
carpets 16-23, 101-5
Chamisso, Adelbert von 5
Chinese beliefs 34
classification 105-6
clothes 81-2
cobwebs 66, 67, 68
coffee morning, 24-49, 99-100
colours 17
Conran, Shirley 51
Superwoman 68
coolies, 34-6, 39, 41
cornflakes 107
Cosmopolitan 82
Crabbe, Rosemary 34, 42, 44, 48-9, 85
supposed novel by 45-6
creases 13, 29-30, 119

dandruff 8, 116, 117, 120
Darwin, Charles 5-6, 88, 95-6, 99-100, 105-13
The Voyage of the Beagle 5-6
de Hooch, Pieter 25, 60, 65-8, 95, 99-101, 104-5, 108
`A Woman Peeling Apples' 61-2, 64-8
detergents 47, 86
Dickens, Charles 89-90, 100-3, 109, 111-13
Edwin Drood 90-1, 96-9
Great Expectations 90
doctor 83-8, 92, 116-20
Dostoevsky, Feodor 80
Brothers Karamazov
sequel 72-8, 80, 112

dust 5-6, 7, 21-2, 70, 87, 117
on walls 24-5
dustballs 16018, 20

Edwin Drood 90-1, 96-9
eggs, twirling 108-9
Emerson, Ralph Waldo 38
enzymes 10-11, 12-13
evil 38, 39-40, 104
eyes 9

Fairie Queene 115
fashion 81-2
flies 63
folds 13, 29-30, 119
fungus 20-2, 24, 96

Galton, Sir Francis 88, 95-6, 101-2, 104-5, 109, 111
games 109
genius 38
germs 66
glass 16
glasses 44
Gobi Desert 22, 35-9, 81, 94
Good Housekeeping 34, 119
goods 37-8
grease 72
Great Expectations 90
Guyana 7-8

hair 16, 17
Hitler, Adolf 72
Holmes
Seven Types of Tobacco Ash 88
honey 27-8
Hoover (machine) 14-15, 69, 110
housework 34, 42, 48, 62, 63, 73-4
dressing for 81-2
manuals 79-80

Indiantracker 11
insectide 63
Institute of Whiteness 15, 83, 110-16

Jesus 76

Killer Wink 109-12

laundry 88-92
lavatory 47
Lawrence, T. E. 45, 51
Leonardo da Vinci 55-8, 61, 95, 99-100, 105-9, 112-13, 118
Lévi-Strauss, Claude
Le Cru et le Cuit 28
Lichtenberg 37
literature 79
Lop-Nor 35

manuals 79-80
mathematics 33
mildew 20, 58
mirror 7, 65, 67
mites 13-14, 18-19, 21, 114
Mongols 94
Monsoon 29
mould 96-7, 107
Mucor 22, 39-40, 42, 58-60, 68-70, 78-9, 81, 83-8, 91-2, 96, 112-15
murder 11-12
mushrooms 59

Newton, Isaac 118
Novalis 95
novels 45-7
Dickens' 90-1, 96-9
Russian 79
writing 48-9
numbers 32-4

Oates, Captain 51

paintings 25, 60-2, 64-6
Patton, General 51-3
Pavlov, Ivan 26
Philip (husband) 8-9, 52, 60, 116-20
prostitution 73-4

role models 51

Sandman, the 9
Sartre, Jean-Paul
L'Etre et le Néant 27
Savonnerie 88-92
scurf 13
Sidney, Sir Philip 51
silver fish 68-9
skinflakes 13, 114
skirt 29, 30, 119
Spenser, Edmund
The Fairie Queene 115

Teilhard, Père Pierre 34-41, 93-5, 102
thoughts 54, 87
tiles 25, 60, 61
typhoid 40

understains 59, 84

Vermeer, Johannes 25
visions 62

wallpaper, cleaning 72, 80
Warburg, Pastor 62
washing machine 14, 83-4, 62
washing up 24, 42-5, 50-3
water 54-6

Yeats, Stephanie 23-5, 28-30, 34, 41-4, 47-8, 85, 114, 116, 118-19 ( )

There is usually an exotic element to the setting and/or plot of Irwin's novels, but The Limits of Vision takes place in a single day in the life of a 20th-century English housewife named Marcia. The text follows her fantasies, wonders, and anxieties throughout, and she gives a wonderful new level of meaning to the phrase unreliable narrator.

Despite her morning coffee with the neighbor housewives, Marcia is a solitary soul in a distant marriage, and her visionary experiences stack up favorably against those of any anchorite you'd care to name. Instead of seeing Jesus like Julian of Norwich did, Marcia receives visits from various artistic and scientific geniuses of more modern periods. She also resists the onslaught of the diabolical intelligences that she associates with the dirt of her house.

I can't offer too much more detail without ruining the delightful surprises of this short book, which develops quite a tense plot, all things considered.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Witty, intelligent and quirky, it is one of those books I will continue re-reading all my life. ( )

I used to joke with one of my friends about "Housewives in the Battle Against Entropy". Now I learn to my surprise that Robert Irwin has written the novel, which I admit I might have liked a good deal more had I read it at any time and place other than Philadelphia Airport during an unexpected and unwanted 30-hour layover. It was funny, witty, surprising, and all the things promised in the back-cover blurbs, it really did feature appearances by Blake, Leonardo, de Hooch, Teilhard, et al., but I think it suffered from the subtle difficulties that male authors often seem to have in maintaining a female first-person narrative. ( )

A brilliantly imagined, frequently hilarious, very, very strange look at one day in the life of a modern London housewife desperate to control and overthrow the creeping dirt and decay threatening to overtake her life and her sanity. Features a sequel to the Brothers Karamazov, all new darkly mystical (not to mention poorly rhymed!) poetry by William Blake, Leonardo da Vinci demonstrating the surface tension of water in a shared bath, and some very special previously unrecorded insights from Teilhard de Chardin. Highly recommended for sheer bravado if nothing else! ( )