Look at Me

This is a story about a reserved medical library assistant who steps out of her shell by making friends with new vibrant people. She is a writer who is willing to part with her passion for storytelling for the right friends, partner. and lifestyle.

The novel tells in dramatic detail how Nick and Alix Fraser casually break the heart of Frances Hinton, a well-behaved and observant young woman who works in the reference library of a medical research laboratory dedicated to the study of problems of human behaviour and who longs, in her subdued way, for love. She is an orderly young woman and Spartan in her habits. If she suffers loneliness it is because she has settled for... Read Full Review

Brookner creates a fascinating window into the interior monologues of human beings, particularly women. In Fanny you can see all the ways one can mentally reformat their experiences to try and make them more tolerable. You also see how practiced one can become at forgiving instead of becoming angry, and how we may not always be paying attention to those who really love us.

Frances Hinton is lonely and bored. She leads a highly regimeted life in the home of her youth, espouses the bourgeois virtues of hard work, stability, and responsibility, and takes no emotional risks. She has few friends and no confidant. She rarely goes out and has hardly any interests or entertainments. In brief, her world is static and very circumscribed. Although she has the talent, intelligence, and financial means to... Read Full Review

Some authors create characters so memorable that they refuse to be dislodged from our brains. These literary sailors scamper up into the rigging of our imagination and unfurl huge sails to carry us far. Such is Fanny Hinton of "Look at Me." Brookner makes the reader feel her embarrassment and anguish so deeply that, were the room in utter darkness and no one else present, one would still feel a pounding blush spread over... Read Full Review