Book: Point Counter Point, Aldous Huxley. First pub: Penguin 1928. This edition: Penguin 1974.
Why: I love the juxtaposition and banter of the two conversations at once, both ignoring the other. It’s how I plan to get my teenage children to their next immunizations. And, I hope to manage a similar interaction in my own book.
His terror, his anxious impatience became almost hysterical.
‘No. I can’t, I really can’t,’ he protested when Spandrell had told him that he must spend the evening at Tantamount House.
‘All the same,’ said the other, ‘you’re damned well going to,’ and he headed the car into the mall. ‘I’ll drop you at the door.’
‘No, really!’
‘And if necessary kick you in.’
‘But I couldn’t stand being there, I couldn’t stand it.’
‘This is an extremely nice car,’ said Spandrell pointedly changing the subject. ‘Delightful to drive.’
‘I couldn’t stand it,’ Illidge whimperingly repeated.
‘I believe the makers guarantee a hundred miles an hour on the track.’
They turned up past St James’s Palace into Pall Mall.
‘Here you are,’ said Spandrell, drawing up at the Kerb. Obediently, Illidge got out…
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Julie Proudfoot - Author 
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