Look at Me - Anita Brookner

I finished Look at Me last night with real sadness; partly because the ending is so heart-breaking and partly because I wanted to keep reading the book.  Somehow life seems shallow after surfacing from this quietly dazzling novel.

In yesterday's post I sketched out a typical Brookner heroine and Frances Hinton fits the bill.  After her mother's death Frances lives on in the large flat whose decor hasn't changed for years, looked after by an elderly housekeeper.  She works at a medical library, lives a modest, unassuming and largely solitary life, doing a little writing in the evenings to exercise her well developed talent for observing the lives of others.  But she is emotionally unfulfilled and trapped by habit and inertia in a dull life.  Frances is drawn into the world of Nick Fraser and his wife Alix, a beautiful charismatic couple who seem to promise her the possibility of a new way of life, especially when she strikes up a careful but enjoyable romantic friendship with the equally decorous James and starts to show some spirit.  But Brookner heroines seldom get their man and Frances is no exception, though equally typically, she does her best to take it well, to make the best of her lot. 

Frances is a good, likable but flawed character.  She is capable of self knowledge but also practises innocent self deception (perhaps a form of self defence) and her personal tragedy works itself out as she naively hopes to join in with the worldly and selfish Frasers.  Brookner creates real emotional tension between the modest, quiet part of Frances's psyche and the small but insistent voice of her ego shouting 'look at me'.  The writing is so skillful and Brookner is adept at capturing turning points or critical moments that are only recognised too late when a fatal wrong turn or mis-step has been taken. 

One of the many pleasures of the novel was being let into Frances's vulnerabilities: she keeps up appearances for the world but not the reader.  Brookner can make scenes like a walk through a park at night or a dinner at a restaurant where feelings are revealed, into real psychological drama.  Part of what makes this little tragedy so compelling is that it is an entirely personal, interior one, almost invisible to observers, yet it is not a storm in a teacup or an over-reaction on Frances's part, it concerns the deeply serious question of how she will live her life, who she is and what she can expect from life.  When reality dashes her modest expectations she returns to her writing, turning personal hurt and disappointment into light, amusing, satire: transforming life on the page in a way that she cannot transform her life in the real world. 

I'm sure that novels like this are deeply unfashionable.  Brookner is an advocate for self-control, restraint, consideration for others, and basic decency, not at all in tune with our mood for instant, noisy self-gratification.  Was it Leavis who, in praising the moral seriousness of Middlemarch, said something along the lines of it being one of the few books written for adults/grown ups?  If so, then I'd like to borrow his phrase and use it here.  This is a serious grown up book.  Our media seems obsessed with youth and adolescence; Brookner knows that the art of growing old and finding a satisfactory compromise with the world is far more important.  She is quietly and insistently telling us that there are standards to uphold, that we cannot have everything we want, when we want it.  It prompts reflection and a steadying of one's values, but she also has no illusions about the ultimate rewards of behaving well: Brookner is clear that the meek are not going to inherit the earth and that the pushy ones will gobble it all up first. I see her books as a way of trying to redress the balance, to give the overlooked their 'look at me' moment. 

Comments

[Litlove]

I love Anita Brookner but hardly anybody seems to read her any more. So it's great to see that you enjoyed her work. My favourites include Hotel du Lac and A Start in Life. I also really enjoyed A Misalliance.

[Diana]

Just a note to say that I'm about halfway through, perhaps a little more, and loving it, in particular how I keep seeing something that you pointed out here: Frances is a grownup. I don't know if that idea would have crystallized for me without your pointing it out and it is really making the story for me.

[Sandra]

Litlove, I agree that Brookner seems to be out of fashion at the moment. Give it a few years and no doubt it will be fashionable to re-discover her.

Diana, I am *so* glad you are enjoying the book. I think that sort of grown up viewpoint creates a subtly different tone and point of view from a lot of other contemporary fiction and is a breath of fresh air.

[Judy O'Grady]

I have just finished "Falling Slowly" and had read "Visitors" prior to this and loved both of the books. She is a superb writer on so many levels - the way her characters deal with solitude - sometimes painful but sometimes bringing peace and security. I look foward to reading her other books and am so glad I discovered her writing. As earlier comments said, she is dealing with grown-ups. Her characters in these two books deal with growing older - how to face the years with dignity and grace - looking at the past with some gained wisdom. A pleasant change from the "botox" and viagra ads.