Marion Halligan, in The Canberra Times referred to the novel as a "fine farce" and noted that the author "seems rather more interested in the episodes than the essentials; or maybe she sees herself as hiding the essentials in order to make her readerswork at discovery. But I found that the pleasures of this book were in the multiplicity and complexity of its episodes, pleasures which appeal to the intellect as games and puzzles do. Emotions aren't important, amusement is."