Anita Brookner's novels really speak to a part of my soul that no other author (barring Baldwin, Petry, and Lispector) quite touch. She died in London in 2016 and her work will live on, though I believe that she is drastically under read.
I agree wholeheartedly with The New York Times who said:
Anita Brookner has staked out a distinctive territory...and made it clear that she is one of the finest novelists of her generation.
Every part of my soul is open and alive when I read Brookner. She has this uncanny ability to write into the marrow of life and feeling. You have to read her to know what I mean.
This story deals with love. resignation, adultery, loss, pain, immense regret, heartache and shows what life can be look like from inside of different experiences of the same events.
Told from inside the lens and life of our protagonist, we see how how mother/son bonds are formed and transition, how friendships are used as covering for seeking out one's own life's affairs, and what it look likes to stand at the crossroads of right/wrong and the consequences that bear on our souls when we choose to do what's in our personal interest.Here's a quote from the novel:
Perhaps I am well qualified for solitude. My discipline rarely lets me down, except perhaps when I am on holiday, as I am now, and find the days long. Even their numbing calm is acceptable; it corresponds to something settled in my nature.
Perhaps reading Brookner corresponds to something settled in my nature.
I will continue on with my project of reading all of her novels.
Here's my current checkin on novels I've read by Brookner so far (10 of 24 completed):
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| my reading list |
My next Brookner read will be Family and Friends. :)
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