A Closed Eye

This novel is an exquisite hymn to loneliness. Every character in it, however inconsequential, is lonely in their own way. It is also quite analytical, describing in some detail, the main characters' inner thoughts, torments and motivations etc - even when they are not conscious of them themselves.

The first two chapters cover the end of the story, then it tells the story chronologically until it reaches the end again. Consequently, Very early on, you learn that a significant character will die. Obviously this affects the way you read the rest of the book and whilst I can't decide whether I'd have preferred it if I had not known, it is interesting wondering how different it could have been.

Whilst it is not a cheerful book, neither is it show more as depressing as it may sound! show less

30. A Closed Eye by Anita Brookner
OPD: 1991
format: 263-page paperback (1993 edition)
acquired: May 2022 read: May 1-7 time reading: 9:17, 2.1 mpp
rating: 4½
genre/style: Novel theme: TBR
locations: London and Brighton, England and Switzerland
about the author: 1928-2016. English author and art historian who published a novel a year from 1981 to 2003. She was born in Herne Hill, outside London, and was Jewish and of Polish descent.

The first time I've read a novel by Brookner. This novel was so clean and polished and easy and perfect.

Quietly obedient Harriet Lytton has an imperfect, or worse, marriage to an older man, and pins her hopes a daughter she raises to be independent, and who naturally grows up to be independent of her mom. This show more novel does some really meaningful stuff, looking at loneliness, desire, and disappointment, the costs of time and aging, and how difficult all these things are to talk about. So much unspoken, undone. It all feels relatable and real.

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/348551#8136413 show less

I suppose I came quite late to the Anita Brookner party - but now that I have I am enjoying her work immensely - and I have three more TBR. As with the other Brookner novels I have read, there is a touch of sadness here. Her characterisation is brilliant, so many small things beautifully observed, in the way people are, and behave, their hopes, fears, disappointments and secret desires laid bare with such realism. Imogen, Harriet's beautiful daughter, is such a wonderfully poignant contrast to Harriet herself - in all her compliant dullness, while Lizzie, Tessa's daughter is more a mirror of Harriet than Tessa, her quiet politeness, and heartbreaking adoration of a mother who is too busy trying to snare her own husband to notice - just show more as Harriet possibly loves her daughter too much, and indulges in fantasies about Jack, Tessa's unattainable husband. This is a novel about the lonlieness within a marriage, the disappointments of life. show less

Another sad story about a kind and cautious woman who suffers through her adult life because of these traits. It is a memorable novel because the writing is great; and the emotions it reveals move the reader as only an artist like Brookner so often has done. There is a surprise ending that prefigures some respite and renewal for the main character, Harriet.

This book is typical of Brookner, which is why I liked it! As usual, she focuses on one woman and a small number of her relationships, with the major participants being in the older age group....as I am. I guess the major elements in the "plot" are the unexpected deaths of a couple of key people (I haven't experienced this, but I have imagined myself being in the situation of having a person close to me die unexpectedly), and her (largely fantasy) relationship with a person who is not her partner (who hasn't, at least for a microsecond, imagined being in such a relationship?). In many ways I could relate to the characters and their relationships. I like Brookner's habit of spending long sections of the book dwelling on the characters' show more thoughts. After all, aren't our lives like that - long periods of thinking in between the actual speaking times...and thinking while other people are speaking to you? show less

This story is like Henry James or Virginia Wolfe in that it's 10% action and 90% the thoughts, dreams, fears, and anxieties of the characters. Part way through I wasn't sure about it but it grew on me as I finished it and then afterwards.

The entire book reads like a narrative summary of the book Brookner meant to write. I liked it well enough but was also disappointed there wasn't more precision and detail.