What do you think?
Rate this book
A Closed Eye
Naïve and undemanding, Harriet Lytton expects very little of life and that is what she receives. Married to a respectable man old enough to be her father, Harriet's only taste of passion comes when she meets Jack Peckham, the unruly, attractive husband of her friend Tessa.
Tessa and Harriet have for many years been bound together by their childhood friendship and the imposed alliance of their two daughters, Imogen and Lizzie. But events conspire to shatter the gentle rhythm of Harriet's life. Tragically restrained by her own cautious choices, she faces the cruellest losses of all: those of hope and desire.
Tessa and Harriet have for many years been bound together by their childhood friendship and the imposed alliance of their two daughters, Imogen and Lizzie. But events conspire to shatter the gentle rhythm of Harriet's life. Tragically restrained by her own cautious choices, she faces the cruellest losses of all: those of hope and desire.
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
40 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
About the author
Anita Brookner
60 books664 followersAnita Brookner published her first novel, A Start In Life in 1981. Her most notable novel, her fourth, Hotel du Lac won the Man Booker Prize in 1984. Her novel, The Next Big Thing was longlisted (alongside John Banville's, Shroud) in 2002 for the Man Booker Prize. She published more than 25 works of fiction, notably: Strangers (2009) shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Fraud (1992) and, The Rules of Engagement (2003). She was also the first female to hold a Slade Professorship of Fine Arts at Cambridge University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
October 26, 2022
4.5 "interior,elegant ,understated" stars!!!
Gr tells me I deleted this review. Did I or was it a GR glitch?
Suffice it to say that Anita Brookner is one of my favorite authors and this gorgeous book is one of the reasons why!
If I reread this I will post a new full review!
Gr tells me I deleted this review. Did I or was it a GR glitch?
Suffice it to say that Anita Brookner is one of my favorite authors and this gorgeous book is one of the reasons why!
If I reread this I will post a new full review!
Read
February 23, 2023My first thought was that this was shockingly long, at least for an Anita Brookner novel; well over two hundred pages.
Structurally this novel is a closed circle with an overlapping flap - we begin in 'the present', which is ( or was) about 1990 , with Harriet writing to invite Lizzie (her friend Tessa's daughter )to visit her in Switzerland, then we move back in time and follow the life of Harriet from her parents relationship and marriage up to 'the present' again.
There are quite a lot of characters, I had thought that Brookner prefers to be an omniscient narrator, but in this novel I had the feeling that she was working through viewpoint characters and we move without warning from one person's consciousness to another's. I thought that the character's interrelationships were not a closed loop, but like models of particles, atoms bound in fixed relationships of attraction or repulsion to each other. Each one had good insight and understanding of at least one other atom in the particle but they all seemed blind to themselves and lacking self-knowledge; hence perhaps the title. Here I felt the final act of the story with the absorption of Harriet and her husband into the life of the Swiss clinic was like Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, and perhaps one aspect of that novel is withdrawal from the everyday in order to develop self knowledge and Switzerland has the same role here - one has to get further away from the painting to perceive it correctly maybe.
A lot of people die in this novel - I can't tell you how many because each time I count I seem to remember another one, however this isn't a tragic tale, even though as many other reviewers comment it is a hymn to loneliness, lacking self-knowledge the characters have nothing to tell each other of their own fundamental needs or fears and so by default they are obliged to be superficial and so are lonely in very social ways; i.e while married, or in friendships, or families.
It's also a jokey, funny book, I cited a couple of lines that made me smile or laugh in the comments were there were others that were simply too long to squeeze into the comment box. In common with Latecomers there was also a moment when this time I felt Anita Brooker sawing my sternum apart, that was kind of her, particularly considering that she is dead, I don't think there was a specific trigger that I can warn you about, perhaps it was just a cumulative effect - and no, none of the deaths are really sad for the reader , they are mostly housekeeping deaths that keep the narrative clean and the focus on Harriet.
In the end there seems to be a real chance for Harriet to bond with Lizzie, who isn't but might have been her god-daughter,anyway spiritually they are linked and Brookner splits aspects of herself between those two characters. The two after all both like going to bed - in this case not a euphemism for sex, but quite literally they like a good sleep
Lizzie has decided to be a writer, but she doesn't have much to draw upon to write about, but fortunately she has already decided not to write until she is forty, which gives her some time:
"'I'm going to write,' said the girl unhesitatingly. ' But not straight away, not until I'm old.' 'How old?' They had persisted. 'Forty,' was the answer....Harriet has taken her seriously. ' You will have to travel, I suppose, and have lots of interesting experiences.' 'Oh, no,'Lizzie had said. 'It will all come out of my head.'" (page 11) (, there is a variant of the same scene and dialogue on pp . 178-179)
This reminded me of Brooker herself who began to publish fiction in her fifties, gifting the public a book a year for about twenty years, then she decided to slow down a bit, this gives us a picture of Anita like Zeus, but with books coming out of her head rather than Athena.
Like other Brookner novels this one is adrift in time but also again tightly moored in geography. This is her Bloomsbury novel while Providence was her Chelsea novel, she tells us the streets where her characters live - perhaps some kind people organise Anita Brookner walking tours of London, not that she evokes those streets, it is more of a marker - like the clothes people wear - and as in Providence there is a clothes shop here too. This is what we have to expect from someone who worked for much of their career in the Courtnould Institute; a lively awareness of ways you can tell a story through signifiers and markers.
the names of the character's also seemed at times significant. Harriet is quite an unusual name for the time and place of the story, Ilse pointed out a potential connection to an Elizabeth Taylor novel. Harriet's daughter is Imogen and the only Imogen I can think of is in Shakespeare.
The meat of the story, it seemed to me, if you will forgive me being grossly carnal, was about sex. Harriet is preoccupied with ideas of innocence that is rooted in being pre-pubertal (despite which she marries and despite finding her husband's sexual style unappetising they manage to have the one child) which means she is turned away from certain kinds of self-knowledge and experience. Equally this is counter balanced by a desire to be a mistress, which is perhaps to say a person whose identity is purely sexual, this being an Anita Brookner novel it is no spoiler to day that this doesn't come to a pass, but that the journey the character takes to avoid becoming what she desires to be is always a very entertaining one.
Art plays a role in the story too, I think Lizzie at one moment is describe as having neither Art nor religion in her life, which I thought was an interesting coupling particularly as after a couple of her novels and one non-fiction of her's I haven't seen any religion, and I don't really get the feeling that the absence of religion is her point either . At one point Harriet's husband sees a Dutch Golden Age still life and understands that it is a meditation on mortality as signified by a fly on an over ripe piece of fruit, this just before he retreats to the comic Swiss medical centre and the Doctor who specialises in diseases of the rich , amusingly going to a Swiss clinic at the time of publication did not have the connotation that it has now, but it seems that the world is paying attention to Anita Brookner and slowly remodelling itself to give extra layers to her novels.
Structurally this novel is a closed circle with an overlapping flap - we begin in 'the present', which is ( or was) about 1990 , with Harriet writing to invite Lizzie (her friend Tessa's daughter )to visit her in Switzerland, then we move back in time and follow the life of Harriet from her parents relationship and marriage up to 'the present' again.
There are quite a lot of characters, I had thought that Brookner prefers to be an omniscient narrator, but in this novel I had the feeling that she was working through viewpoint characters and we move without warning from one person's consciousness to another's. I thought that the character's interrelationships were not a closed loop, but like models of particles, atoms bound in fixed relationships of attraction or repulsion to each other. Each one had good insight and understanding of at least one other atom in the particle but they all seemed blind to themselves and lacking self-knowledge; hence perhaps the title. Here I felt the final act of the story with the absorption of Harriet and her husband into the life of the Swiss clinic was like Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, and perhaps one aspect of that novel is withdrawal from the everyday in order to develop self knowledge and Switzerland has the same role here - one has to get further away from the painting to perceive it correctly maybe.
A lot of people die in this novel - I can't tell you how many because each time I count I seem to remember another one, however this isn't a tragic tale, even though as many other reviewers comment it is a hymn to loneliness, lacking self-knowledge the characters have nothing to tell each other of their own fundamental needs or fears and so by default they are obliged to be superficial and so are lonely in very social ways; i.e while married, or in friendships, or families.
It's also a jokey, funny book, I cited a couple of lines that made me smile or laugh in the comments were there were others that were simply too long to squeeze into the comment box. In common with Latecomers there was also a moment when this time I felt Anita Brooker sawing my sternum apart, that was kind of her, particularly considering that she is dead, I don't think there was a specific trigger that I can warn you about, perhaps it was just a cumulative effect - and no, none of the deaths are really sad for the reader , they are mostly housekeeping deaths that keep the narrative clean and the focus on Harriet.
In the end there seems to be a real chance for Harriet to bond with Lizzie, who isn't but might have been her god-daughter,anyway spiritually they are linked and Brookner splits aspects of herself between those two characters. The two after all both like going to bed - in this case not a euphemism for sex, but quite literally they like a good sleep
Lizzie has decided to be a writer, but she doesn't have much to draw upon to write about, but fortunately she has already decided not to write until she is forty, which gives her some time:
"'I'm going to write,' said the girl unhesitatingly. ' But not straight away, not until I'm old.' 'How old?' They had persisted. 'Forty,' was the answer....Harriet has taken her seriously. ' You will have to travel, I suppose, and have lots of interesting experiences.' 'Oh, no,'Lizzie had said. 'It will all come out of my head.'" (page 11) (, there is a variant of the same scene and dialogue on pp . 178-179)
This reminded me of Brooker herself who began to publish fiction in her fifties, gifting the public a book a year for about twenty years, then she decided to slow down a bit, this gives us a picture of Anita like Zeus, but with books coming out of her head rather than Athena.
Like other Brookner novels this one is adrift in time but also again tightly moored in geography. This is her Bloomsbury novel while Providence was her Chelsea novel, she tells us the streets where her characters live - perhaps some kind people organise Anita Brookner walking tours of London, not that she evokes those streets, it is more of a marker - like the clothes people wear - and as in Providence there is a clothes shop here too. This is what we have to expect from someone who worked for much of their career in the Courtnould Institute; a lively awareness of ways you can tell a story through signifiers and markers.
the names of the character's also seemed at times significant. Harriet is quite an unusual name for the time and place of the story, Ilse pointed out a potential connection to an Elizabeth Taylor novel. Harriet's daughter is Imogen and the only Imogen I can think of is in Shakespeare.
The meat of the story, it seemed to me, if you will forgive me being grossly carnal, was about sex. Harriet is preoccupied with ideas of innocence that is rooted in being pre-pubertal (despite which she marries and despite finding her husband's sexual style unappetising they manage to have the one child) which means she is turned away from certain kinds of self-knowledge and experience. Equally this is counter balanced by a desire to be a mistress, which is perhaps to say a person whose identity is purely sexual, this being an Anita Brookner novel it is no spoiler to day that this doesn't come to a pass, but that the journey the character takes to avoid becoming what she desires to be is always a very entertaining one.
Art plays a role in the story too, I think Lizzie at one moment is describe as having neither Art nor religion in her life, which I thought was an interesting coupling particularly as after a couple of her novels and one non-fiction of her's I haven't seen any religion, and I don't really get the feeling that the absence of religion is her point either . At one point Harriet's husband sees a Dutch Golden Age still life and understands that it is a meditation on mortality as signified by a fly on an over ripe piece of fruit, this just before he retreats to the comic Swiss medical centre and the Doctor who specialises in diseases of the rich , amusingly going to a Swiss clinic at the time of publication did not have the connotation that it has now, but it seems that the world is paying attention to Anita Brookner and slowly remodelling itself to give extra layers to her novels.
November 6, 2019
Published in 1991, A Closed Eye is the eleventh of Anita Brookner’s twenty-four novels. Brookner’s characters are usually deeply solitary although not necessarily alone and not self-consciously lonely, whether young or old, married or single, childless or not. Brookner’s characters typically display minimal understanding of themselves and their family and friends, arriving at better understanding only too late. We sometimes don’t like or sympathize with Brookner’s characters, but we do come to understand them thoroughly.
In A Closed Eye, Brookner gives us generally unlikable and wonderfully distinctive characters. At the center of A Closed Eye is Harriet Lytton, a repressed young woman who marries a successful, dull, and unattractive colleague of her father’s, providing herself and her parents with the security they crave. Harriet’s mother, Merle, despairs that her ever innocent daughter takes day trips to visit her and her father, ”an emotional invalid”, instead of spending afternoons in bed with a lover: ”A woman had no business to look so empty of calculation, when she should be busy thinking, planning ahead. A woman of Harriet’s age should not be spending time with her husband and her elderly parents when she could be in bed with a lover.” Meanwhile, Harriet fantasizes about bedding Jack Peckham, her childhood friend Tessa’s philandering and egocentric husband: ”His extraordinary looks and his abrupt manners gave no clue to his character, but then his character would always be of less interest than his appearance. . .”
Harriet’s daughter, Imogene, is as beautiful and bold as her mother is innocent. Immy ”had the careless cruelty of the natural beauty, of those favoured by fortune. Already she had outdistanced them, had a sureness denied to either of her parents.”. ”Mentally she [Immy] divorced herself from her father, as she had done, instinctively, when she was a growing child. This time the decision was final, on grounds of aesthetic inadequacy. It did not matter to her that she hurt him, for she regarded him as someone who deserved the hurt. There was anger in this reaction; she dared him to come near her, so that she could repulse him.”
Perhaps the most likable character in A Closed Eye is Tessa and Jack’s largely ignored daughter Lizzie: acerbic, smart, and withdrawn, of whom Harriet later writes ”I do know what courage is needed to see one through a life. You, my dear Lizzie, have always had that sort of courage. I was always impressed by you, even when you were a tiny child. But of course one does not say these things to a child.”
It’s the characters who make A Closed Eye so memorable, together with Harriet’s wonder at how she and her husband — both plain, ”terribly ordinary”, and boring — could have produced the beautiful, vivacious, and emotionally distant Immy.
Don’t read Brookner in general or a A Closed Eye in particular if you need happy endings and warm, lovable characters. But if you enjoy beautifully portrayed nasty and sometimes clueless characters, A Closed Eye provides a wonderful introduction to Brookner’s marveolous novels.
4.5 stars
In A Closed Eye, Brookner gives us generally unlikable and wonderfully distinctive characters. At the center of A Closed Eye is Harriet Lytton, a repressed young woman who marries a successful, dull, and unattractive colleague of her father’s, providing herself and her parents with the security they crave. Harriet’s mother, Merle, despairs that her ever innocent daughter takes day trips to visit her and her father, ”an emotional invalid”, instead of spending afternoons in bed with a lover: ”A woman had no business to look so empty of calculation, when she should be busy thinking, planning ahead. A woman of Harriet’s age should not be spending time with her husband and her elderly parents when she could be in bed with a lover.” Meanwhile, Harriet fantasizes about bedding Jack Peckham, her childhood friend Tessa’s philandering and egocentric husband: ”His extraordinary looks and his abrupt manners gave no clue to his character, but then his character would always be of less interest than his appearance. . .”
Harriet’s daughter, Imogene, is as beautiful and bold as her mother is innocent. Immy ”had the careless cruelty of the natural beauty, of those favoured by fortune. Already she had outdistanced them, had a sureness denied to either of her parents.”. ”Mentally she [Immy] divorced herself from her father, as she had done, instinctively, when she was a growing child. This time the decision was final, on grounds of aesthetic inadequacy. It did not matter to her that she hurt him, for she regarded him as someone who deserved the hurt. There was anger in this reaction; she dared him to come near her, so that she could repulse him.”
Perhaps the most likable character in A Closed Eye is Tessa and Jack’s largely ignored daughter Lizzie: acerbic, smart, and withdrawn, of whom Harriet later writes ”I do know what courage is needed to see one through a life. You, my dear Lizzie, have always had that sort of courage. I was always impressed by you, even when you were a tiny child. But of course one does not say these things to a child.”
It’s the characters who make A Closed Eye so memorable, together with Harriet’s wonder at how she and her husband — both plain, ”terribly ordinary”, and boring — could have produced the beautiful, vivacious, and emotionally distant Immy.
Don’t read Brookner in general or a A Closed Eye in particular if you need happy endings and warm, lovable characters. But if you enjoy beautifully portrayed nasty and sometimes clueless characters, A Closed Eye provides a wonderful introduction to Brookner’s marveolous novels.
4.5 stars
August 13, 2009
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 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.
December 4, 2017
I found A Closed Eye far more engaging than I have done the majority of Brookner's novels to date. Very few of the characters are likeable, but they all have believable backstories, and are composed of both complexities and depth. It felt as though there was more plot to A Closed Eye than a lot of Brookner's other books, and whilst similar tropes were present, it felt as though a slightly different, and therefore less predictable, approach was taken. A thoughtful novel, which is packed with emotion.
November 9, 2008
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 as depressing as it may sound!
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 as depressing as it may sound!
December 1, 2023
This is rough. It's not as good as Friends and Family, but it's close. Completely different though. It's about grief and sexual desire and the inability to face either. It has a marvellous side-character, a girl (and later young woman) full of pathos, dignity, and determination, a lone serious figure among Brookner's childlike and childish adults.
June 18, 2014
A very difficult book to assess. The author is skilled in examining through her heroine Harriet the thoughts of a struggling woman who in many ways is the victim of choices made by others. The one ray of happiness in her life is the unexpected child Imogen who gradually grows to disappoint, though Harriet denies the obvious and refuses to be disappointed.
All in all, this is a picture of many lives lived in pain while those living the lives pretend otherwise. Perhaps it is about survival by just putting one foot in front of the other and retreating to the world of the mind when reality closes in.
It was a difficult book to plow through, dense in parts, and rather depressing in all. Perhaps it opens the reader's eye to how other people cope with the potentially deadening truths of life.
All in all, this is a picture of many lives lived in pain while those living the lives pretend otherwise. Perhaps it is about survival by just putting one foot in front of the other and retreating to the world of the mind when reality closes in.
It was a difficult book to plow through, dense in parts, and rather depressing in all. Perhaps it opens the reader's eye to how other people cope with the potentially deadening truths of life.
January 20, 2016
Sigh.....I picked up this book to read on an airplane trip and had I brought anything else, would never have finished this. It seems a reflection of winter in London ... grey grey grey grey grey rainy rainy gloomy sad blah ... ok you get it. I would have given it a one star rating except that the writing is articulate and there is clearly talent there (this is the only thing I have read by this author). I can only surmise that the author must have either had a sad lonely life or else is disdainful of those who do. Not a single sunny page or character. Perhaps there are a lot of people like that but frankly I don't want to spend my time with them; that includes fictional characters. If you like depressing stories about miserable people, I guess this is the book for you. Otherwise, look elsewhere......
July 15, 2010
This book reminded me that the star system on goodreads doesn't give me enough options for rating a book - I really need .25, .5, and some .75 stars.
A closed eye was extremely well written. However, nothing works out, for anyone, and everyone is dissatisfied and sad, (but not too sad - they are mostly comfortable with their unhappiness.) There is one exception, a fairly unlikeable character - and he might be sad and dissatisfied too, but we don't know enough about him to be sure.
A closed eye was extremely well written. However, nothing works out, for anyone, and everyone is dissatisfied and sad, (but not too sad - they are mostly comfortable with their unhappiness.) There is one exception, a fairly unlikeable character - and he might be sad and dissatisfied too, but we don't know enough about him to be sure.
April 12, 2020
Always a pleasure to read Brookner’s sharp, intelligent and incisive prose.
July 23, 2020
One of her best.
April 5, 2014
This novel is all about loneliness, do we ever truly connect with anyone else? Several points of view are explored throughout but the writer is skilled enough to make the transitions seemless.
From the outset, through a letter written,we know that a tragedy occurs and the novel circles back to the letter, after numerous flashbacks, at the end.
There are some astute observations along the way:
"Privately she wondered if all women were disappointed, and concluded that this was probably the case but was never admitted."
Reflecting on her ever youthful father, the main character, Harriet, reflects:
"It was his greatest gift, she thought, his own youth had never decayed, gone sour, deserted him."
And my absolute favourite of all, from Immy, Harriet's remote and calculating daughter:
"She herself had nothing but pity for marriage, seeing it as a kind of willed imbecility, more indecent, in its sacrificial aspects, than any amount of concubinage."
Recommend.
From the outset, through a letter written,we know that a tragedy occurs and the novel circles back to the letter, after numerous flashbacks, at the end.
There are some astute observations along the way:
"Privately she wondered if all women were disappointed, and concluded that this was probably the case but was never admitted."
Reflecting on her ever youthful father, the main character, Harriet, reflects:
"It was his greatest gift, she thought, his own youth had never decayed, gone sour, deserted him."
And my absolute favourite of all, from Immy, Harriet's remote and calculating daughter:
"She herself had nothing but pity for marriage, seeing it as a kind of willed imbecility, more indecent, in its sacrificial aspects, than any amount of concubinage."
Recommend.
May 26, 2014
I don't know why I like Anita Brookner - I think her books cannot be good for me as I read them, as I did this one, in a single setting, hoping for some light and understanding, and ending with depressing disappointment in the characters, but absolute attentiveness to the story. In this one, a woman lives not with one eye closed, but with both, at least to the outer world - she looks inward to see an impoverished life, and she pours the boundless love and energy she is unable to expend on herself into a worthless, selfish daughter. There's way too much inner examination by the protagonist, Harriet, who worships the impudence and physical beauty she feels herself lacking, first in a friend, and then in that awful, heartless young woman.
November 12, 2010
Anita Brookner is a favorite author of mine so I was not disappointed with this one at all. She is a master at creating characters whose innermost thoughts and feelings are so deftly revealed through stunning prose. Meet Hariette, married to a much older man (for security), having one daughter who is both distant and arrogant (but adored by her mother) who in mid-life yearns for the excitement that an affair will surely provide her--a chance to be truly an individual, a grown up...but will she ever realize her fantasy?? If you are not willing to sit back and get into the characters and their lives Brookner is not for you!
July 1, 2016
A Closed Eye, like much of Anita Brookner's work, is like a sad, still life painting that is best appreciated if you are, well, a sad painter in a still life. Which apparently I am, as I completely identified with the protagonist Harriet, who moves through love and loss quietly and pragmatically. It is true that Brookner writes the same story again and again, but that may just be because we live the life that we live again and again. And it wasn't until I experienced loss, and love, and love and loss, that I really got that. Highly recommended, perhaps for those of us on the other side of 50.
January 4, 2014
There were so many things unsaid in this book. Like why was there blood everywhere, when Lizzie thought about that day in the bookshop? Also what happened to Harriet eventually in the end. The book never said if her and Jack got to see each other.
September 11, 2014
I love Anita Brookner's writing; she is a master of language. Her books are typically a little depressing, and this was no exception...but the prose is so lovely you have to keep reading!
February 8, 2018
A very sad story, written beautifully.
I'm not sure I understood part of the final, but it probably doesn't matter.
I'm not sure I understood part of the final, but it probably doesn't matter.
August 24, 2018
If you want to intimately share "real life" with characters and personalities between the covers of a book, then read Brookner. "A Closed Eye" by Anita Brookner is a testament to an author and woman who has a keen and vivid insight into the human condition and all the dreams, anxieties, compromises, surprises, feelings and emotions that real people in the real world might encounter in their lives. She is not concerned with cliches or in any way cleaning up her characters. She presents them, how they think, how they interact with one another and the world they live in and their deepest thoughts (that they share with no one else... as many of us do), as is. They are who they are. Be prepared to accept them that way. You will not be disappointed.
This is my first read by Brookner. I actually found this paperback abandoned in a public place, knew nothing about the author, and took a chance. I'm so glad I did. I will definitely read more of Anita Brookner's novels in the future. I'm so glad I found her.
Highly recommended.
This is my first read by Brookner. I actually found this paperback abandoned in a public place, knew nothing about the author, and took a chance. I'm so glad I did. I will definitely read more of Anita Brookner's novels in the future. I'm so glad I found her.
Highly recommended.
January 27, 2010
I picked this up off the "need a book to read" shelf at work when I was sharing a book with my brother at home and didn't have anything to read for lunch breaks. It was suprisingly good. Maybe I underestimated it because the other titles on the shelf were less than desirable-a bunch of Nora Roberts/Danielle Steel type paperbacks, but I was impressed with A Closed Eye.
The Basics:
Tells the story of Harriet Lytton who is married to an much older man, blinded by the brattiness of her spoiled daughter and caught up in the idea of having an affair. I won't give away too much of the story but what is so intriguing about her character is her lack of action-or maybe it's just her pitable existance. Either way, I enjoyed reading her story.
Read it if:
you like books set in Europe
you like reading about a character's emotional journey
The Basics:
Tells the story of Harriet Lytton who is married to an much older man, blinded by the brattiness of her spoiled daughter and caught up in the idea of having an affair. I won't give away too much of the story but what is so intriguing about her character is her lack of action-or maybe it's just her pitable existance. Either way, I enjoyed reading her story.
Read it if:
you like books set in Europe
you like reading about a character's emotional journey
December 6, 2017
although I've read most of Anita Brookner's work I can understand how others wouldn't enjoy the navel gazing characters she portrays. from the minute the story starts we are in the head of the self depreciating protagonist and it never ends. Introverted is a huge understatement. It's not easy to write a complete novel based on a life where nothing ever happens because the character never does anything to make something happen. Her life is one of watching others and analysing everything to death and telling herself why she can't live a little. page after page and again and again until the read wants to shout 'enough already'. I know there are people who are as inert as Harriet but their neediness is off putting. a suffocating story but I have to admire how she pulls it off.
May 23, 2012
As in all Brookner's books, 90% of the "action" takes place in the characters' heads and very little anywhere else. The title refers to *all* the main characters having a closed eye, yet also an open eye--they see what they want and ignore the rest, or choose not to cope with it. Even Lizzie's last comment about Imogen leaves the reader with some information but not the whole picture. I would have liked more narrative about Freddie's first wife. I'm not sure if the painting on the cover refers to Tessa and Harriet, or Imogen and Lizzie, it could be both. Notice how Tessa/Imogen is looking off while Harriet/Lizzie looks straight ahead.
September 21, 2017
My first Brookner. I've been reading a fair number of period British novels about women lately and the overall affect it's having on me is that I feel claustrophobic, because they're all unhappy and meek or powerless and they're trapped in their own lives. I suppose we're all trapped in our own lives, in a way, but at least I have some joy in my trap. On another level this is about choices and the consequences of them. Harriet has made some foolish choices and suffers sadly as a result. Loneliness, too, can be said of most of the characters. Perhaps this wasn't a good choice for my first Brookner.
August 5, 2008
Stream of consciousness, sort of... rather disturbing towards the end. Story of a woman's life mainly via her own thoughts but also with glimpses from her husband, friends, child, parents... She is docile and insubstantial and has no apparent desire to express her will beyond a brief obsession with the husband of a friend.
As I have only just finished it, I'm not sure what I think. It definitely left me feeling somewhat disturbed.
Brookner is a complete master of writing about women. Utterly dead-on keen eye. Brilliant.
As I have only just finished it, I'm not sure what I think. It definitely left me feeling somewhat disturbed.
Brookner is a complete master of writing about women. Utterly dead-on keen eye. Brilliant.
April 14, 2024
I do believe that I am incapable of quitting any Brookner novel. However, I was appalled at the clueless way in which people in this novel seem to have no idea of how to raise a child.
This happened with three of the main characters and I found it maddening. It’s a great bugaboo of mine, I admit.
The novel itself contains what you might expect in the sense of her great gift of characterization and plot
This happened with three of the main characters and I found it maddening. It’s a great bugaboo of mine, I admit.
The novel itself contains what you might expect in the sense of her great gift of characterization and plot
May 25, 2012
The unextraordinary, though sometimes infuriating, central character in "A Closed Eye" struggles with sexual passion for a friend's husband. This is a study of wasted opportunities and wasted lives. Set in mid-twentieth century, middle-class England, this is a delicate piece of nihilism. I found it very uncomfortable reading.
January 12, 2014
Another outstanding read from Anita Brookner. All praise to her. I put her in the same category as Irish Murdoch and Carol Shields. And Penelope Lively. Better than Maggie O'Farrell. A wonderful thoughtful interesting observant writer of manners, beliefs, society and relationships. Not a chick read at all.
August 23, 2009
On the one hand, I can recognize how beautifully-written her books are... but on the other, they are so unredemptive and ultimately depressing. Had to force myself to finish it.
October 11, 2011
I only made it to page 15 (3rd Chapter)before I decided to give up on this one. The writing style felt dull, I didn't care about any of the characters, and I was not intrigued by the plot or setting.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews