sentences:  Philip Hensher of "The Observer" said, ""Michael Tolliver Lives" is a sad spectacle; the sight of a novelist who remembers that he used to be lovable and trying to remember how he did it ...The charm of the series was always one of escape; in this sad and unappealingly thin book, what we discover is that the pleasures of Arcadia are pretty much like the pleasures of Clapham.That's honestly not what anyone wants to hear."