There is something in Anita Brookner’s sparse style I find immensely fascinating. I have yet to figure out why – but I find her empty melancholic fictional worlds extremely attractive.
Brookner has published more than 20 novels, so far I have only read Leaving Home & Undue Influence, I am currently reading A Closed Eye, and I will be reading more!
You can get to know a bit more about her here: Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 98, Anita Brookner
I have her art criticism, but I really need to get around to her fiction.
How do your find her criticism?
Very insightful, definitely worth reading.
Thank you
I will probaaly start with Hotel du Lac. I’m so looking forward to reading her finally. Your description makes me very curious.
Hi Caroline, I’ve just started Hotel du Lac. I believe it takes place in the Lake Geneva area you visited.
Yes SubRosa, i agree with the melancholy style and characters; i also find her books strangely consoling: though they are all, of course, basically the same story : woman(occasionally a man)of a certain age, sees a chance to enrich/fulfil their lives , misses it, or it goes wrong…;My favourite, though I have only a trace memory of it, is “Look at Me”. I have a rather disturbing theory that the consolation, in my case anyway, comes from the realization that her “protagonists” mirror the unfulfilled part(s) of MYself and therefore give comfort for this.Thanks for looking at my blog(s) Steve
Oh interesting! You see, I was just thinking that her (… I do not have words for this…!) “flat style” ?! results in an openness which the reader are welcomed to fill in. And so your remark about being mirrored makes perfect sense – .
Yes sigrun, I suppose a bit Death of Author, tho a particuarly bleak version in Brookner’s case!Ie. the text lies in the spaces between author intention and reader’s subjectivity. Steve