Undue Influence

Yes, it is true that Anita Brookner's writing is not for everyone, and when I started reading her novels several years ago I found them painfully depressing and difficult to appreciate. But now that I am older and wiser, I have found every one that I have read simply fascinating. She is easily one of my favorite authors, simply for the fact that she writes so intelligently, and I can identify with the characters in every one of her stories (what that says about my life, I don't care to think too much about..) Whenever I read one of her novels, I find that I have to keep a highlighter close to me, because Brookner manages to put into words the feelings and thoughts that I don't have the courage or the eloquence to express myself. Her novels are by no means uplifting, but they are not without wit or hope. "Undue Influence" is definitely one of her finest.

I've read the other reviews here and I can not understand how anyone would rate UNDUE INFUENCE one star and complain it was boring. If a reader had cause to finish the novel, the story of Claire Pitt must have had some fascination, some impact that rates it higher! I found Claire facinating and very human. Loveable in her way. She represents a side of the human condition we don't like to think about: loneliness, longing, vulnerability, regret. To a great extent she is the byproduct of her past, her upbringing; it is this which casts a wide net on her inexplicable behavior--an undue influence. She needs to care for another, as her mother cared for her sick father. It is only through love that we fulfill our full capacity to be human.I found Claire to be very human. She is extremely intelligent, with an introspection that was continually interesting. She wants to love, be loved, to be listened to (which is a sign of love); yet her "misunderstandings," her takes on people, including her feelings about Martin, mislead and upset her and she pays the price. I empathised greatly with her in the end.Claire's is a feminine voice though. She speaks, honestly, without a filter, the needs of a woman and I think men especially should read it to broaden their view of a woman's mind.Brookner is a superb writer. If you have an interest in serious fiction that is character based, intellectually honest, and psychologically facinating, read Brookner.

This is my own bias, but no doubt Ms. Brookner's primary gift is here prose craftsmanship--as good as David Foster Wallace (though about 180% different)or Jeanette Winterson. This woman can write! Her writing (with the obvious exception of about every 15th sentence, which contains a 25- word spiralling subordinate clause)is very, very strong--meticulously crafted and lyrical, at the same time. If you don't read to read good prose, then much of what this book has to offer will have no appeal to you whatever. As you can see, my review is far, far more postitive than the others (in fact, can you find on this website a cluster of reviews this hostile towards an author of this stature--probably not). The fact is though, I pretty much agree with those reviews, the reasons anyway, just not the conclusions. Think about how complex this person is though (Clare Pitt, the main character). Is this a person I would want to be friends with if I had just met? I doubt it--I would think she was just about the most boring person I had ever met, the kind who was liked by her teachers, teaches sunday school, reads Anita Brookner novels, and obsessively uses coasters whenever she puts a drink down. But from her internal monologue, I saw this as a fascinating person--very, very conflicted.

Lucky you, if you've not read "Undue Influence" yet. If you belong to Brookner's regular readers, you will, once more, rejoice in her faultless prose. Claire, the central character, is younger than usual. She is also funny, in her way. Her sense of humour is actually sometimes astonighingly understated, as well as past "romances," but the humour and the sexual-if-not-romantical past of Claire are very present in that particular novel. Being French, I read English much better than I can write it: thank you for forgiving my grammar mistakes.

I want to reassure her many fans, and advise those that are fortunate enough to have ahead of them the pleasure of discovering her, that Anita Brookner's latest novel is one of her very best. Anita Brookner is the only writer I know whose words seem to lighten the air I breathe. Life is what happens while awaiting her next novel, and UNDUE INFLUENCE makes the past year's anticipation worthwhile. By placing Claire Pitt (a bookish young spinster-in-waiting) under her microscope, and by dissecting her every thought, Brookner has shown that there are many hours of pleasure still to be derived from wallowing in self-indulgent introspection. I have two wishes for Ms Brookner: that she write faster, and that she outlive me.