"Rather Dated" November: Anita Brookner, A Start in Life 📚

[frustratedacademic]

Come and join the chat from over in the "Rather Dated" thread (📚The Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group - All welcome to join📚 | Mumsnet), where we established that there's a thirst for reading books by women from the past 50 years or so that are too frequently written off as dated.

November's choice is Anita Brookner, A Start in Life. We'll start discussions in full from the 25th, but feel free to jot your thoughts down here earlier.

Spoilers allowed, but not on the main thread please.

Thanks; place marking until I get a moment to write up my thoughts on the marvellous A Start in Life.

Thanks! I haven't actually read this one yet. 😳

Just asked cheekily on the other thread if we can add the book 📚 emojis to the titles of these book threads so they stick out please? @frustratedacademic

I'll ask, @tobee , though I feel like a pest, as Mumsnet HQ already had to correct the title for me

Afternoon all - we've added in the 📚 to the title now, as requested. Enjoy! And never worry about getting in touch @frustratedacademic - you're not a pest!

Thanks very much for doing that @frustratedacademic and @LivMumsnet

Aww, thanks @LivMumsnet !

I read a review of this that termed it ‘A weirdly hypnotic tragicomedy of the banal’, and broadly speaking I agree with this. There was a lot of detail given over to the everyday, like the cooking of a meal.

I enjoyed the early descriptions of Ruth’s life, the dining room ‘sodden with a miasma of gravy and tears’, her vain and ridiculous parents who took little to no notice of her. We find out a lot about her parents, more than I thought I would. Her parents are quite simply dreadful. Spoilt, weak, self-obsessed, but in different ways.

Between them they offer no support to their only child and as the novel progresses they go from virtually ignoring her to leaning on her to sucking the life from her. As her mother loses her looks and ability to navigate the world outside of her filthy bedroom, she turns to Ruth for support. I found this incredibly frustrating, as Ruth had finally got to France, made friends and found somewhere to live. I was angry on her behalf. Her parents had provided anything for her really. The home was her grandmother’s, the money came from her too. All her parents did was ruin the house with dirt and neglect.

I thought it was well written and I will read another of her books. What I found interesting was the title. There was no ‘start’ for Ruth.

I hope Ruth will find a new lease of life once her father dies.

The poor cabbie!

It felt like a simpler time, revolving around meals, and The mundane.

I agree with the comments made so far. If I were recommending where to start with Anita Brookner, this wouldn't have been my first choice. While the writing is brilliantly drawn (that description of the meal made for George!), and the way she captures a particular sliver of life as an impoverished academic is done so well, it is overwhelmingly bleak. Though, I suppose in the end you might say that she found her way to manage living a life in the way she wanted.

Looking at the quotations from reviews on the back, I'm wondering if I've missed something: "A delight, amusing, beautifully written and as full of sharp minor portraits as a pin cushion." (The Times). Yes, it has its amusing moments, if you've never lived in straitened circumstances yourself, I suppose. What do others think?

Anita Brookner is my all time favourite author, it could be that I started reading her in my late teens and "grew up" with her writing throughout my life. She had yet to disappoint me as we both aged.

I loved A Start in Life when I first read it and like many of her books, it has a special place in my heart. I did find it poignant and no one writes about Disappointment as Brookner could.

Nowadays I tend to re-read Hotel du Lac, Look At Me, Latecomers and A Closed Eye, rather than her very early works.

I did find it poignant and no one writes about Disappointment as Brookner could.

That is pretty much all she writes about, though, isn't it? I read quite a few of her books, including A Start in Life, when they were in vogue, which was probably about 30 years ago, and they became very samey after a while. Not denying she's a good writer, but her range is fairly limited.

I want to jot down a few thoughts about the book while they're fresh (ish) in my mind.

I think that description of if as 'A weirdly hypnotic tragicomedy of the banal’ posted upthread is perfect. It is filled with quotidian details, but I don't find these banal at all. I love the bits about clothes, or meals. And I did find it strangely hypnotic.

I think there are lots of comic touches, and I found Mrs Cutler very amusingly drawn ('Never say die!'). I think there were also some elements of the ridiculous - aspects of the relationship between George and Mrs Jacobs, for example - that I found funny.

I agree that the theme of disappointment and unfulfilled potential runs through the novel, but like many of Brookner's protagonists, Ruth is also quite steely and self-sufficient in many ways. And though her start in life is far from ideal, she has at least achieved moderate academic success by the end.

One thing I've noticed in Brookner's novels is how she often shows an isolated woman who is sort of brought to life by proximity to a happy and more glamorous couple - in this novel, Hugh and Jill. I recently read Look at Me and a similar thing happens there.

As for Helen and George, they are truly dreadful characters - self-centred, vapid, and as a pp said, so vain. I was frustrated by Ruth's sense of duty to them - though perhaps that's why it could be read as dated? I don't think many young women today would be quite so willing to give up their lives and careers in this way - thank goodness.

I also found the subtle references to Mrs Weiss's Jewish background very interesting, and assumed the implication was that she had fled Nazi domination in perhaps the 1930s.

Lastly, I've never read any Balzac but feel inspired to, and wonder if I had, the novel would have meant even more.

@MotherofPearl

I agree that the theme of disappointment and unfulfilled potential runs through the novel, but like many of Brookner's protagonists, Ruth is also quite steely and self-sufficient in many ways.

Yes, and I think it's that steeliness, that strength in her protagonists that makes the stories not only about disappointment, but about optimism and hope (makes me slightly embarrassed to say that somehow). Her characters stay strong and true to themselves despite the disappointments dealt to them, I think.

Probably reading Brookner led me to Balzac, another favourite author of mine. Not quite as introspective as Brookner, but oh so beautifully written and observed. And such a catalogue to work through! :)

I've just finished reading the book. I agree with comments so far.

I thought it was good and well written, but it was very bleak and an uncomfortable read at times. I'm going to go back and read it again to think about it a bit more.

I’ve just finished it too.

It surprised me a bit because the only Brookner I’ve read previously was more depressing, iirc (I’m afraid I can’t recall which one it was, it was years ago). I agree this was in parts very funny, and the writing was superb.

I was struggling throughout to try and put my finger on what it reminded me of - it felt at times like the written equivalent of a Mike Leigh film in the grotesqueness of the characters and the bleakness of the scenario - the absurd Helen lying in bed; poor crippled Molly in her beach-hut, and Sally with her pristine flouncy flat (surely Brenda Blethyn would play her?).

And also there was something almost fairytale-like about it that stopped me feeling too depressed by the narrative, because Ruth's parents are so very monstrous that I couldn’t quite take them seriously as real people. I don’t know whether Brookner intended that, but they were almost like the Ugly Sisters and Ruth was Cinderella, allowed out for a brief giddy time (in Paris - although how hilariously grim was that chambre de bonne) but inevitably called back to her ashes at the end. There was a hint that, when her father died - as he of course would - she'd be released at last.

Agree with everyone else that I feel I really ought to have read the whole of Balzac before even starting this! I suspect an awful lot more would have fallen into place then.

I loved your analysis, @Terpsichore, and in fact it clarifies my judgement on this. It was bleak, but didn't depress me somehow. Nevertheless, other books of Brookner's have been more satisfying.

Anyway, I'm going to the main thread to remind people that we're looking forward to new people joining this chat from tomorrow.

I’ve only just found this thread! I was impatiently waiting till tomorrow until we could discuss this! Anyway, I loved it. It has been my favourite so far. Yes I suppose I agree that it’s bleak, and that Ruth is living the sad life of someone utterly sacrificed on the altar of her parents selfishness. And I totally agree that it plays out in your head like a Mike Leigh film. But that’s the situation, if you like; the comedy comes from the writing, which is like a razor. I’ve jotted down my favourite bits, but really the whole book was full of this pin sharp observation which is acidly funny. Miss Cutler collecting the library book: nothing with a happy ending, nothing set in (can’t read my own writing), nothing with anyone called Douglas. Her clothes: elephant coloured trousers, nylon blouse and remedial footwear- this made me laugh aloud. The ghastly bit where you just know terrible Richard isn’t going to turn up for the dinner Ruth has cooked. The male characters were all terrible really, although I did feel sorry for George. He was drawn to Mrs Jacobs just because she offered a comfortable flat, compared to his existence with Helen. Almost every time Anita Brookner mentioned Helen, it was to remark on her thinness, so in my head she got thinner and thinner till by the end of the book she was skeletal! And finally, I copied out this description of Ruth: She was attractive enough for a clever woman, but it was principally as a clever woman that she was attractive. I’m having that on my gravestone.

I've been thinking about my own remark that I didn’t know whether or not Brookner intended to give the fairy-tale quality to the plot that I detected….on further reflection I’m pretty sure that she would never have done anything without intending it!

I'm even more sure of this having read this really interesting and thought-provoking tribute to her by her friend Julian Barnes. She sounds formidable, all right.

I'll be back later. Your remarks made a lot of sense to me @Terpsichore .

Just popping on to say I'm either out this month or very late as have had covid last few days and not read the book as a bit too blah!

Get well soon 🌷I have it too this week.
Living like Helen by keeping to my bed!

Sorry to hear you’re both unwell @tobee and @IsFuzzyBeagMise - wrap up well and hope you’re better soon.

Thank you very much @Terpsichore !
I'm feeling a lot better today, thankfully.

The article that Terpsichore linked to is a really interesting read. It suggests that while Brookner loved her parents almost painfully, that she started living her own life after they passed on when she was in her forties. 'The phrase 'the emotional pandemonium of life' could be applied to Ruth's situation in 'A Start in Life' I think.

The article also refers to a tour of French provincial art galleries that Brookner undertook in winter in foggy weather which has a parallel in the novel when Ruth visits some towns as part of her research for her doctorate. She cuts the visit short, however, as she finds it underwhelming, unlike Brookner who loved it.

I'm not assuming that 'A Start in Life' draws on Brookner's own life, but I think there may be resonances. Brookner came across as a stoic person and I think the character of Ruth is too.