A Start in Life by Anita BrooknerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Anita Brookner's debut novel first published in 1981. This paperback edition reissued in 2016 by Penguin Random House as part of a series in perfect understated livery.
"Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature." A captivating first line... She is studying the heroines of Balzac in order to discover where her own childhood and adult life has gone awry. She is seeking enlightenment. I have a weak-spot for any book that uses Paris as a location although Weiss' Parisian love affairs were doomed from the start.
Brookner's novels explore themes of emotional loss. (She was once labeled "the mistress of gloom"). But beyond this tag her writing is exquisite and A Start in Life is a beautiful, sophisticated work endowed with many moments of gentle comedy. And it should not be overlooked that Brookner won the Booker Prize in 1984 for her novel Hotel du Lac (which I have read). Her talent for excellent prose is evident with A Start in Life.
I suppose that Brookner is (was - she died in 2016) an acquired taste. Well, I enjoy her writing and I can anticipate reading another twenty-two novels that she wrote after a distinguished career as an art historian. I might even try some Balzac....
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