A writer flies to Athens to teach a short creative-writing course and, over the following days, listens as seatmates, students, friends and fellow writers recount their marriages, regrets and self-deceptions. The narrator stays largely in outline while the stories of others fill the book.
Books mentioned in Outline (5)
Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: “an essay about Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence, the book that has inspired me more than anything else in my life”
The Wintry Peacock by D. H. Lawrence: “The story I started to read ... was called 'The Wintry Peacock'”
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: “the chapter in Wuthering Heights where Heathcliff and Cathy stare from the dark garden through the windows of the Lintons' drawing room”
The Odyssey by Homer: “You might remember in the Odyssey ... the character of Elpenor, Odysseus's crewmate who falls off the roof of Circe's house”
Encyclopaedia Britannica: “"any more than I would spend the afternoon reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica" (simile)”