my next Anita Brookner novel for may 2024

I've decided to read Anita Brooker's novels in chronological order. 

She demands a lot of me as a reader, but she pays in kind with deeply moving character portrayals, and I am dedicated to reading all of her novels by no later than the middle of next year.

Up next I will be reading Look At Me. 

Book Summary: A lonely art historian absorbed in her research seizes the opportunity to share in the joys and pleasures of the lives of a glittering couple, only to find her hopes of companionship and happiness shattered.

Sometimes I just start one of her novels by reading one paragraph just so that I can "always be reading Brookner". It's how I approach Proust as well. 

Opening line:

Once a thing is know it can never be unknown. It can only be forgotten. And, in a way that bends time, so long as it is remembered, it will indicate the future.

 

Incidents in the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner: A Book Review

 

What can I say? No one writes into the marrow of relationships (familial and partnerships) in under 250 pages quite like Anita Brookner. She is so masterful at drilling into the experience of her characters, that she demands to be read slowly.

source: BBC

In Incidents in the Rue Laugier, Brookner describes so vividly and emotionally the story of what happens when a young, inexperienced woman goes into the world. Maud seeks independence from her stifling mother, while actually having no one to turn to for any guidance. This spells disaster as Tyler can sense her naiveté. As a man who preys on young women's inexperience, he says and does all the right things for Maud to become ensnared with him.

You can guess what all happens next. Interestingly, THIS isn't the part of the story that sent me reeling. It's Tyler's frenemy- Edward whose character depiction strikes me the most.

Edward is outwardly reliable, definitely not a rake, and seemingly compassionate. What Edward tasks himself with later is seen as less chivalrous, and more self-serving. His insistence on propriety at the expense of his own happiness becomes a weighted blanket in his relationship.

We then see an extreme role reversal. He begins to feel trapped. Maud begins to appreciate that continuity that a husband and her own life can bring- especially when juxtaposed with her life back home with her mother. 

This novel explores family, responsibility, connection, honesty, women's dependence, self-esteem, duty, grief, love, and acceptance in a way that only Anita Brookner can do. 

Brookner condenses stories down to their most important factors and allows the reader to enter safely into the deepest recesses of the hearts and minds of her characters. You can't help but see yourself in most of them, and walk about pondering how/what you would do in the situations she presents on the page.

I will continue to read all of her works. Now I will approach them in chronological order so that no stone remains unturned. 

Quotes from the novel:

But recently I have found myself repeating some of my mother's attitudes- reading, sighing, going to bed early- and I began to wish for clarification.

Like my father I found her apparent serenity irritating, yet I have reached the age when a woman begins to perceive that she is growing into the person whom she least plans to resemble: her mother.

Maud simply wanted to live in Paris, with or without a husband, preferably without. While careful not to let her thoughts show on her severe and slightly disdainful golden face, Maud had a secret desire to escape all forms of control. That was her abiding wish.

Loneliness, he felt, was sometimes the price one paid for integrity. 

Tyler had saddled himself with this girl, Maud, for no other reason that that he was used to being accompanied by a submissive female presence.

Please do yourself a favor if you haven't already and read Incidents in the Rue Laugier. 

getting the proustian itch again- reading the best of literature

Busy days mean I am only reading the best of what literature has to offer. I don't have a lot of time to "test out" new narratives and decide if it works for me. That's why watching bookish content online is so fun- THEY can read it for me, and I can experience the novel that way.

For me, it's been a slow reread of Emma, a deep journey through Romantic Outlaws, several nonfiction books, Nabakov's letters to his wife, Game of Thrones (first time), and a myriad of other things.

coffee + cake= love

Long gone are the days of seeing how many novels I can finish (residue from my time on BookTube), and I've said hello again to the deep, slow, immersive reading style that I've always loved.

Some judge me for always seeking out 5 star reads or 5 star experiences, but this is my reading life. And the key word is life. I don't get the breaths I take back, and I won't get the time I spend on books back either. 

There is nothing wrong with reading ANYthing that your heart desires, but for me I use literature to maintain my sanity through the tough times of my life, for transformation, and for a clue into the universal experiences of humankind. It's a tall order, but there are several novelists who absolutely hit the mark, so why not read and reread them???

My days are long, and my nights are sleepless. I've been getting the itch to begin all 7 volumes of In Search of Lost Time again. GASP. I read it in 2022. It could maybe do with some more air in between readings, but the heart wants what it wants!

always coffee

I'm thinking that if the itch doesn't go away I'll start Swann's Way and allow myself to read one volume every 6 months or so. This way it's a few years worth of reading projects, and I can slowly languish over his memories while creating my own. 

I love this edition. Gorgeous.

Either way, I'm grateful for the reprieve that literature offers me from how hard things can be sometimes. I am also grateful to read that these struggles of the human experience have been documented for hundreds of years. It's why I have always and will always love the novel form.