altered states by anita brookner review + brookner reading oeuvre check in

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.

She speaks directly into the very psychological nature of what it means to be alive and experience emotional changes over the course of a lifetime.  What a wonderful companion to read alongside Monsieur Proust by Céleste Albaret as I reflect on memory, the past, and a life to come. 

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):

my reading list

My next Brookner read will be Family and Friends. :) 

Happy slow reading ☕️ 

anita brookner: look at me opening paragraph and novel revisit

my copy i picked up in new york a few weeks ago

In continuation of my Anita Brookner project, I have to resurrect the title I began in May and haven't picked up since! 

Her novels are best when sunken into, so in order to do it justice I needed to clear a few things off my plate first. Now that I have, I am eager to spend my evenings with this great work.

Goodreads 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.

Opening paragraph:

"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. It is wiser, in every circumstance, to forget, to cultivate the art of forgetting. To remember is to face the enemy. The truth lies in remembering." 

I'm excited to get back into her world. I always find myself journaling heavily while reading her works. I love how quiet and real her works are. If you've never picked her up, you can start most easily with Hotel Du Lac (her booker prize winner) and you'll know if she is for you. (She has to be!)

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. 

September Reading Start: Hot Days + Book Buying

I don't fool myself into doing "book buying bans" or anything like that. Life is hard. My life is really hard and buying and actually READING books brings me so much contentment, I'd never pretend I will stop.

Toying around with returning to BookTube, but in the meantime focusing on managing my schedule and reading as much as I can in my limited free time.

I feel myself in the mood for "page turning" books, but after one or two, I get bored and long for a deep read.

Let me be honest, I ALWAYS have a classic going. Always. 

I'm picking my Anita Brookner project back up with Incidents in the Rue Laugier. So far ( one chapter in) our narrator has announced herself as unreliable. LOVE that. I'll be continuing this challenge until I have her entire oeuvre completed. 

Also, I'm checking off my Classics I Want to Read in 2023. I'd have read more if I weren't constantly rereading - which I will never stop :) 

Here's how the month begins...

August Reading Focus: Classic Literature

August will be a hot, muggy, busy, and stressful month. Going into this acknowledging this, is quite powerful.

Lots of hospital appointments, long nights, and pounds of coffee is on the horizon.

This means... classics and more classics. I have a plan to read and switch between lots of the classics left on my list to read in 2023. This list is as loose as a goose and I don't take any reading plans seriously. I'm not earning karma points for these reads. 

First up on the massive reading mashup is to continue with Mistress and Maid by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (loving this with all my heart). I will also be starting Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. And in true me fashion, I'll add some comforting re-reads. Mansfield Park and Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel Far From the Madding Crowd.

What's exciting about my re-reads is that I never tire of looking forward to them. I always finish a re-read by watching my favorite screen adaptation as well. It's a truly comforting and cozy way to enjoy my reading life. 

August classics to start of with

It's book prize season and instead of having FOMO, I am going to focus on the books and authors that bring me joy and comfort. 

OH....and I'll be adding some reads from Anita Brookner as well. I am so happy to get back on my project of reading most of her oeuvre. 

Anita Brookner Project Check In

I love the slow novels of Anita Brookner.

They are deeply character drawn, and honestly feel a bit claustrophobic. They are nonetheless fantastic. 

She has a way of writing that moves me so deeply. 

source: New York Times

Here is my April 2024 Check In

My next Brookner: The 1983 novel Look at Me

isn't this cover sullen?

I've decided that I will read her remaining novels in publication order. I am so excited about this project.

Deep reading through an author's oeuvre is one of my favorite things to do.

Happy reading. ☕️ 

Update: Fall 2023

I won't make myself read in publication date. I've decided to read whichever I'm interested in at the time. You can't go wrong with Brookner. And, even her "miss" is a closer home run in 3/4 of what I read from the contemporary section these days. 

Providence by Anita Brookner: Another Personal Exploration

It's no secret, I love Anita Brookner. I have dedicated myself to reading every novel of hers.

Providence was my fourth novel by Brookner, and I was delighted to find that once again she swept me in her subtle and quiet way into the world of Kitty Maule and those deep longing observations we all make about life.

This story of love, desire, acceptance, loss, family, belonging, loneliness and despair really leaned into the dark spaces at some points.

Providence by Anita Bookner

In the character of Caroline - Kitty's gorgeous yet lonely neighbor, we learn that Caroline has accepted this state of loneliness

‘Well, now that I’m divorced they don’t want to know me. You know how it is with a woman on her own. The wives close ranks. A woman on her own is a threat, Kitty.’

 These thoughts of independence combined with thoughts of being imprisoned by one's life circumstances, created so much depth in this novel.

No one is able to write about the ordinary and mundane the way that Brookner can. 

Our protagonist Kitty deals with loss, ideas about living a full life, and she questions her connection to and love for her colleague and friend Maurice.

For two days she sat in the garden or walked about the streets, and she would remember those two days as a curious interval, when all things seemed possible, an almost mystical time of promise and anticipated fulfillment. 

We learn towards the end of the novel that Kitty realizes

I want it to be different now. I don’t want to be alone any more.

 I can only say that Providence (like every Brookner novel I've read so far) is worth the time. It's worth the reflection. It's world the pondering it insights.

I now know better how I feel about myself after having read Kitty's experiences. When I was considering a career and life inside of academia, I spent a great deal of time in academic circles, and I could almost feel myself there. This melodic way she writes is entrancing and I adore it.

I'll be finishing up The Passion According to G.H. by my other favorite author Clarice Lispector before picking up my next Anita Brookner novel.

Happy reading my slow living friends

Anita Brookner and The Quiet Novels I Adore

Source: bbc.com

I am not sure how I stumbled upon the English novelist Anita Brookner, but I am so glad that I did.

I kept seeking out novelist and novels that just felt like me. 

When I learned that she was an unmarried dedicated novelist who didn't publish until her early 50s, I was like, YES YES YES all the things YES.

She started publishing her novels at age 53 and pretty much wrote one a year until she died.