The Go-Between past that continues to exist in and to control the subconscious … This doubling of consciousness and of narrative voice—the innocent twelve-year-old's emerging from beneath the self-protective sixty-five-year-old's—is one of Hartley's most effective techniques.” Another preoccupation in Tóibín's introduction was how far the story of “The Go-Between” is based on fact, in the wake of Adrian Wright’s biographical study, "Foreign Country: The Life of L. P. Hartley". Although Leo is twelve at the time of the novel – the long, hot summer of 1900 – the five-year-old Hartley remembered that time afterwards as "a Golden Age". When he was about
The Space Between Us (novel) the class system, but questioned the absence of characters other than "middle-class, insular" Indians. "To read these comparisons is to understand that Umrigar's Bombay is a place where robust foods figure prominently, elements like wind and sea are driving forces, and religious beliefs underscore everything," commented the "San Francisco Chronicle"s Lynn Andriani. In general, the characters of Bhima and Sera have been regarded as realistic and sympathetic by reviewers. Reviewers also discussed the social commentary present in the novel. Kirkus Reviews called it "[a] subtle, elegant analysis of class and power." "Beacon Journal"s Mary Ethridge wrote: ""The Space Between Us"