The Bay of Angels

i found the characters and story hard to relate to. i don't think addressing sexism and feminism with these weak, flimsy characters works, not if she's making the point i hope she's trying to make. ( )

Carefully wrought prose, like setting ornaments on a shelf in a just so manner.
It is the story of a young woman's entrance into adulthood told in the first person. Her passivity and determined naivete are irritating, especially in the context of her constant assertions that she is an independent and emancipated woman. She is completely dependent on, and constantly seeks, paternalistic oversight of some sort, and yet rarely or only obliquely acknowledges that reliance.
Some of the scenes were too contrived and jarringly unbelievable, such as the mother's hospitalisation, and the daughter's drifting helplessness. But the scenes in the Residence Saint Therese, especially the first scene, were wonderful. They were precise acute observations of the players and their roles in a nursing home.
Since this was my first novel by Brookner, I'm not sure if this claustrophobically precise style of writing is her own, or if it was the voice of the narrator. I'm looking forward to comparing it with another one of her novels. ( )

Zoe Cunningham grew up with a widowed and reclusive mother yet retains an unshakable faith in storybook endings. When her mother, Anne, finally decides to remarry, Zoe is thrilled with her prospective stepfather, Simon. A series of calamities occur. ( )

Beautifully crafted, an immaculate measure of human emotion and the dichotomy of relationships. ( )

Without knowing anything about the author, other than the age at which she published her first book (53), here is my best guess at what’s going on here. Ms. Brookner enjoys good books, but hates novels. Good books are well-written, elegant, insightful, and satisfying. Novels are either about some unlikeable person getting crushed or about some likable person becoming unlikeable and then getting crushed. Heroes or heroines exist, but only in genre fiction or age-targeted books—and are thus not in good books. So, she sat out to write that most implausible of things: a good book about a good person who works for and achieves a form of happiness suited to her character.

So, is The Bay of Angels genre fiction, after all? Is it just another romance novel? Well, yes and no. It doesn’t read at all like a modern-day romance. But it does have certain Jane-Austen-esque elements to it. Most notably the straightened circumstances of the heroine’s family: After the step-father dies and it is discovered that he didn’t actually own villa into which he had moved them. There is an acceptance of class, too, and a strong, independent heroine, Zoe Cunningham.

But Brookner is no mere Austen imitator. Her subtle, underplayed characters could more plausibly have strolled out of a novel by Henry James novel or even by William Dean Howells. Zoe is not just independent; she is a solitary outsider in her social setting, never fully welcome in her environment but comfortable with herself and content to remain so forever. That she ultimately finds love, one feels, is entirely due to her refusal either to chase after or to flee it. But really, this is how relationship works—character dictates fate. And I, for one, find it refreshing to see an author who can see and reflect the beauty implied by that simple psychic fact. ( )