Rating: 
Summary: Loss of Value
Review: "Point Counter Point" is the longest and best of Huxley's novels I've read so far. It's an intimate portrait of a set of characters in 1920s London. As such, it is short of action, more a "novel of ideas" in which Huxley dissects the attitudes and behaviour of contemporary society.
The reader is transported into a post-War Britain in which the values which underpinned society before that War are no more: scientific realism has decimated the certainties of the intellectual elite, and material progress has not eased class tensions. Individuals feel freer to pursue their own interests regardless of the effect of their actions on others. Hence marriages are largely shams, fidelity being honoured only in the breach. Fascism is on the rise in the form of Everard Webley (Oswald Mosley?) who exalts the "liberty" provided by the modern world:
"The hearer immediately visualizes himself sitting in shirt-sleeves with a bottle and a complaisant wench and no laws, no code of good manners, no wife, no policeman, no parson to forbid."
This is an empty, amoral vision, attracting Huxley's satire and scorn. When true loss occurs to Huxley's characters, they find it all the harder to bear as they have nothing and noone to really fall back on.
"Point Counter Point" could, I suppose, be criticised as a deeply pessimistic work, and perhaps an intellectually arrogant one at that. But I felt that it is representative of a disorientation of values which persists to this day, when individuals as consumers rather then society as a whole are pandered to. Lots of Huxley's criticism remains relevant. Quite apart from that, it is excellently written.
G Rodgers
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Brave New World
Review: A very good piece of literature, but not a very good book.
Rating: 
Summary: 200 pages and counting
Review: After 100 pages I hated Point Counter Point. It was pretty nicely written, witty and urbane and filled with mildly amusing ponderings of people who like to show off how smart they imagine themselves to be. After the first 100 pages my vague recollection of reading Brave New World sometime years and years ago made my already underwhelming opinion nosedive. I hated the characters: hated their smug, self-righteous, utterly condescending self-importance and I was annoyed with Huxley for creating them.But I kept going, for an as yet uncertain reason compelled to at least finish it. And nothing changes . . . The turnaround comes in the slow, very subtle humanizing of these pompous jerks followed by a rapid and all-consuming anatomization of the nuance and flow of their personalities. Regardless of their lofty identities and superior postures, these people are flaked away, pulled apart, itemized and discarded with an ambitious and often roaring insight. I suspect many of Huxley's other novels resemble this slow-to-appreciate mumble of ramblings, often in dispute, of various social issues as seen by people who hardly care. Having ventured this one I might wish to avoid many of the others. Regardless of this eventual respect I still find myself irritated. Call it three-and-a-half, rounded up because it ends rather cruelly.
Rating:
Summary: a pompous and irritating book that somehow draws you in
Review: After 100 pages I hated Point Counter Point. It was pretty nicely written, witty and urbane and filled with mildly amusing ponderings of people who like to show off how smart they imagine themselves to be. After the first 100 pages my vague recollection of reading Brave New World sometime years and years ago made my already underwhelming opinion nosedive. I hated the characters: hated their smug, self-righteous, utterly condescending self-importance and I was annoyed with Huxley for creating them. But I kept going, for an as yet uncertain reason compelled to at least finish it. And nothing changes . . . The turnaround comes in the slow, very subtle humanizing of these pompous jerks followed by a rapid and all-consuming anatomization of the nuance and flow of their personalities. Regardless of their lofty identities and superior postures, these people are flaked away, pulled apart, itemized and discarded with an ambitious and often roaring insight. I suspect many of Huxley's other novels resemble this slow-to-appreciate mumble of ramblings, often in dispute, of various social issues as seen by people who hardly care. Having ventured this one I might wish to avoid many of the others. Regardless of this eventual respect I still find myself irritated. Call it three-and-a-half, rounded up because it ends rather cruelly.
Rating:
Summary: Britain in the late '20s, with a dash of bitters
Review: Aldous Huxley's reputation as a writer of fiction rests on
three works: _Antic Hay_, _Brave New World_, and _Point
Counter Point_. In this book, the most ambitious and
successful of the three, he examines in detail the ideas
and personalities of the British intelligentsia of the late
twenties. Their politics, their sexuality, their world
view, their love of life, and their fear of death are
ruthlessly dissected for our delectation. Huxley
accomplishes this by developing various themes with one
group of characters and then reintroducing them with
another group, whose members view similar developments from
a different perspective. Situations, ideas, and figures of
speech recur in altered form throughout the novel.
Oftentimes, he accomplishes this effect with a great deal
of gentleness and subtlety. Two brothers-in-law, Walter Bidlake and Philip Quarles, are
clearly projections of Huxley at different ages. They
interact with each other and the other members of the large
cast of characters. A third, diabolical character, Maurice
Spandrell, is more or less Huxley's Jungian shadow. D.H.
Lawrence is projected into the story as Mark Rampion, and
John Middleton Murry appears as Denis Burlap. We are
allowed inside the minds of these five men, letting us see
the events of the story from many points of view. For that
matter, we are allowed inside the minds of all the
characters. In particular, we are allowed inside the mind
of the frighteningly seductive femme fatale, Lucy
Tantamount, who is a projection of Nancy Cunard. Communists and Fascists, apolitical seekers of wholeness,
God-seekers, and bored aesthetes offer their views on the
events and ideas of the time and on each other. Sometimes
these oppositions escalate into violence. The crippling
effects of poverty on the poor are contrasted with the
pathetic efforts of their economic betters to come to terms
with their personal demons. The young rich characters have for the most part dispensed
with God and busy themselves searching for a good time. But
the doddering rich, the elderly quietists, the weepy
inepts, the smarmy bullies, the shameless exploiters, and
the sinister diabolists continue the quest. The elderly
quietists come off best. The lusts of the flesh fail as miserably as religion.
Philip Quarles and his wife cannot communicate. Spandrell
humiliates his conquests, but is ultimately bored with
them. Lucy Tantamount is also chronically unfulfilled.
Rampion's vision of wholeness and marital fulfillment
serves more to highlight the deficiencies of the other
characters than to inspire emulation. The elderly members
of the cast no longer possess the life force necessary to
seduce, and such efforts as they make end in disaster.
Burlap, the truly successful seducer of the novel, is so
disgusting that he will make your skin crawl. The novel is like a machine with a thousand moving parts.
It delights, it captivates, it amuses and horrifies. It
sparkles with Huxley's intelligence and wit. It is
sufficiently vicious in spots to gratify one's intellectual
bloodlust. I enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: Britain in the late '20s, with a dash of bitters
Review: Aldous Huxley's reputation as a writer of fiction rests on
three works: _Antic Hay_, _Brave New World_, and _Point
Counter Point_. In this book, the most ambitious and
successful of the three, he examines in detail the ideas
and personalities of the British intelligentsia of the late
twenties. Their politics, their sexuality, their world
view, their love of life, and their fear of death are
ruthlessly dissected for our delectation. Huxley
accomplishes this by developing various themes with one
group of characters and then reintroducing them with
another group, whose members view similar developments from
a different perspective. Situations, ideas, and figures of
speech recur in altered form throughout the novel.
Oftentimes, he accomplishes this effect with a great deal
of gentleness and subtlety. Two brothers-in-law, Walter Bidlake and Philip Quarles, are
clearly projections of Huxley at different ages. They
interact with each other and the other members of the large
cast of characters. A third, diabolical character, Maurice
Spandrell, is more or less Huxley's Jungian shadow. D.H.
Lawrence is projected into the story as Mark Rampion, and
John Middleton Murry appears as Denis Burlap. We are
allowed inside the minds of these five men, letting us see
the events of the story from many points of view. For that
matter, we are allowed inside the minds of all the
characters. In particular, we are allowed inside the mind
of the frighteningly seductive femme fatale, Lucy
Tantamount, who is a projection of Nancy Cunard. Communists and Fascists, apolitical seekers of wholeness,
God-seekers, and bored aesthetes offer their views on the
events and ideas of the time and on each other. Sometimes
these oppositions escalate into violence. The crippling
effects of poverty on the poor are contrasted with the
pathetic efforts of their economic betters to come to terms
with their personal demons. The young rich characters have for the most part dispensed
with God and busy themselves searching for a good time. But
the doddering rich, the elderly quietists, the weepy
inepts, the smarmy bullies, the shameless exploiters, and
the sinister diabolists continue the quest. The elderly
quietists come off best. The lusts of the flesh fail as miserably as religion.
Philip Quarles and his wife cannot communicate. Spandrell
humiliates his conquests, but is ultimately bored with
them. Lucy Tantamount is also chronically unfulfilled.
Rampion's vision of wholeness and marital fulfillment
serves more to highlight the deficiencies of the other
characters than to inspire emulation. The elderly members
of the cast no longer possess the life force necessary to
seduce, and such efforts as they make end in disaster.
Burlap, the truly successful seducer of the novel, is so
disgusting that he will make your skin crawl. The novel is like a machine with a thousand moving parts.
It delights, it captivates, it amuses and horrifies. It
sparkles with Huxley's intelligence and wit. It is
sufficiently vicious in spots to gratify one's intellectual
bloodlust. I enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: Not Huxley's best
Review: Good but not great, this book starts off roaring with Walter leaving his expectant girl friend (who has left her husband!) for some man-eater. The book failed for me later with some of the other characters getting too politically involved and too pompous. The down to Earth parts of this book involving Lucy, Walter and others were wonderful. The tragedies at the end left me scratching my head.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent banter
Review: Huxley had to be one of the most astute minds of his age. Although Point Counter Point and a Brave New World are very different, Huxley's far sighted genius is evident on every page. The coversations of Spandrell, Pampion, Burlap and Phillip Quarles are deep and challenging touching subjects such as art, literature, religion, science, and sociology. Huxley also mixes infedelity and mudrer into his rather thin plot. The true value of Point Counter Point is its deep thought provoking conversations, not its plot.
Rating:
Summary: Very good book
Review: Huxley's character portrayals are, as has been mentioned, sophisticated, fascinating and diverse, if not a little exaggerated. His ideas are, as always, well developed and insightful. The plot structure, as is typical in a character-driven novel, is virtually nonexistant - but we can forgive this. In fact, the only real problem I have with this book is a disagreement with Huxley's callow "whole person" thesis, which smacks of a kind of vague transcendentalism. Of course, this is a personal gripe, and I would encourage this book to anyone interested in a rather meandering examination of extreme personality types in early 1900's England.
Rating: 
Summary: Brave New Review
Review: I am currently the only one-star reviewer of "Point Counter Point". A part of me wonders if perhaps I'm just not intellectual enough to appreciate this book. A bigger part of me is more certain that the most intellectual thing I've done lately is to put this book down before begrudgingly going any further than halfway through.
The novel is tediously narrated and involves too many characters to even be concerned about one. I understand the criticism of science and reason and intelligentsia and high society that fuels this novel, but I can't relate to why so many reviewers consider these issues were presented in any interesting or engaging manner. From what I can tell, the novel consists of varying glimpses into the dialogues and neuroses of its myriad of characters, without every really developing any kind of plot or story.
I typically seek to complete an entire work before drawing any judgment on its content, but sometimes, rarely, I make exceptions. I can't think of a better exception than "Point Counter Point".
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