The Merry-Go-Round — W. Somerset Maugham

He was trained as a doctor, and he must have been good: his observations are truthful and free of sentiment. His books are a tonic.

The "merry-go-round" was his term for London at the turn of the century. His narrator, Miss Ley, is a shrewd and amusing elderly spinster, something like Maugham in drag. A born commentator, she acts like a Greek chorus. The world may be mad, she seems to say, but it is amusing.