Falling Slowly

I once bumped into Anita Brookner at a museum exhibition in London. She looked fiercely intelligent, exactly like her photograph in Falling Slowly, and she gave me the odd impression that there was a zone surrounding her, a wall, if you will, of privacy. I instinctively stepped back to give her that space. Was this my imagination, this wall? Or had I read too many Anita Brookner novels and identified her too closely with her protagonists? I don't know. But I have read a number of Brookner novels, and, while enjoying her fine, nuanced writing, I have always wanted to get out and interact with others after I have finished one of her books. Her characters are so isolated, so lonely, so trapped in worlds of their own making, never seeming to get anywhere, going round and round in circles of carefully-controlled routine. Dismaying, and ultimately depressing. In this book, two sisters, Beatrice and Miriam Sharpe, who grew up in a cold home, with parents who were unhappily married, go through the motions of living. Beatrice is a concert pianist manque who ended up in a dead-end job as an accompanist. Miriam translates French novels into English (or vice-versa---it's not clear), a solitary occupation that she conducts at home and at the London Library. Beatrice, a romantic, never gets the romance in real-life that she finds in romance novels. Miriam's 5-year marriage to a scientist ends when he leaves for Canada with his lab assistant. Miriam could care less. She moves in with her sister, and then back out, but they wind up together at the end, not particularly happy in each other's company, but not particularly happy in anyone else's company, either. Even Miriam's affair with Simon, a too-handsome married man, a classic womanizer, is not very much fun. Is there sexual fulfillment? Brookner barely goes into that. Another man, Tom Rivers (a play on the Rivers character in Jane Eyre), might be just what Miriam needs after Simon dumps her, but he is abruptly removed from the scene. Several reviews indicate that the book ends on a positive note. That needs qualification---what's positive for a character in a Brookner novel doesn't pass for positive in many other places. Yes, Miriam, after Beatrice's death, seems to be interacting a bit more with other people, but not so that anyone with a richer social and emotional life would recognize. While I respect Brookner's writing skill, I would recommend Falling Slowly only to die-hard fans.

Finished "Falling Slowly" last night. Such despair, such bitter sad luck. And the compliance with this despair. Has Ms. Brookner never heard of transcendence? I almost thought she was going to give it a go this time but alas, "no faith," as she says. (How can an art lover have no faith?) Nevertheless, I savor her tortured novels and find a small particle of comfort in their depression. Because in the end it is the existential void vividly portrayed and that comes only from the the recognition of the relentless absurdity of most living which no thinking person can ignore. And Anita Brookner drives it home. She is a jewel; a big heavy one.

As a devoted reader of every single one of Miss Brookner's 18 novels, I can confidently declare her masterpiece has arrived. Prior to FALLING SLOWLY, I had given that designation to LOOK AT ME. This is the most vivid, heartwrenching and endlessly thought-provoking work of her career. My only disappointment (and it is always the same disappointment with each new offering) is that FALLING SLOWLY is only 227 pages long--it is powerful, harrowing and utterly unforgettable. We as readers are fortunate beyond words to have Anita Brookner in our lives--may she write at least 18 MORE novels before she calls it a day.

I should confess at the outset that I harbor the same unbounding love for Anita Brookner's writing that I do for the acting of Anthony Hopkins -- that is, I would be awestruck to see Hopkins on stage merely scratching his head or filing his nails, and I would probably wait on line to see a cheque written by Brookner! My bias notwithstanding, this has become my new favorite Brookner novel, as Miriam is the Brookner heroine with whom I have identified most strongly. She is definitely 'typical' of the somewhat repressed, guarded and alienated upper/middle class women whom Brookner has crafted, but at the same time, Miriam has a spark and feistiness that went far to balance out some VERY sensitive moments vis-a-vis her more delicate sister Beatrice -- think Anna from "Fraud" with a stronger backbone! I expect all Brookner fans will share an enthusiastic reaction to this book, and I believe that it's more contemporary vibe and heroine will attract new readers to the Brookner fold!

"Falling Slowly" is Anita Brookner's 18th novel in as many years, and one has to wonder: How many ways are there to say that a human's lot is a lonely, desultory one? This is the story of two middle-aged sisters, Beatrice, a stately romantic, and the younger Miriam, a hard realist. Even lovers and marriage offer the sisters no relief from loneliness and their state of being "mysteriously isolated from the world." It is tempting to compare Brookner to Barbara Pym, for they both write about women in that same segment of London society-- intelligent women of "comfortable" circumstances, always assessing how "suitable" everything is and turning to cups of tea in moments of crisis. But while Pym's women seem old fashioned, they are really quite game as they look to catch the vicar's eye at a church "jumble sale." Brookner's women-- and men-- although more modern, are more thoroughly introverted and repressed. When happiness dangles before them they invariably find an excuse to return to their self-imposed solitude. Oddly, however grim Brookner's outlook, one continues to read her novels for their beautiful, precise prose, and for her quiet snatches of humor.