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خانم دکتر ویس در چهل سالگی میدانست که ادبیات زندگیاش را تباه کرده. پس از مدتها فکر به شیوهی دانشگاهیاش، آن را به حساب آموزش اخلاقی نادرستی گذاشته بود که بر اثر تلاش مشترک پدر و مادرش (که در سایر موارد ناسازگار بودند) باعث شده بود سرنوشتش تغییر یابد. وی در امور زنان صاحب نظر بود. «زنان در رمانهای بالزاک» عنوان رسالهای بود که احتمالا اعتبار او را برای همیشه تامین میکرد... نسخهشناسی مشهور در دانشگاه سوربن عاشقش شده بود، ولی این داستان اصلی زندگیاش نبود، تجربهای که باعث شده بود زندگیاش را به ادبیات پیوند زند چیزی نبود که مایهی غیبت و وراجی باشد. بلکه در واقع از جنس ادبیات بود.
199 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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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.
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February 18, 2025
Ruth, or the misfortunes of virtue
In her room Ruth read of cottages blasted by northern winds, of country mansions with spacious lawns, of Parisian lodging houses teeming with intrigue and activity, of miners’ back-to-backs vibrating with the heat of banked-up coal fires, of home farms and rectories, of villas and castles, of gardens and pièces d’eau, of journeys and sojourns abroad. Was real life always so untenanted? Or was real life a distillation from ordinary mundane disappointment?
From her fiction debut in 1981 on, Anita Brookner welcomes the reader in her comfortably uncomfortable world of solitude, loneliness, slight disappointment in life and love, dark stuffy flats with heavy furniture and family gloominess counterweighed by books.
If this sounds cozy and appealing enough to avid readers, Brookner doesn’t hide that for some readers books are rather a honey trap, deluding one’s expectations and ideas how life should be – an outright danger, which brings Emma Bovary to mind.
Professor in literature Ruth Weiss is an apt illustration of such a reader, and an easy victim for literary lure, knowing, at forty, that her life had been ruined by literature. Finding herself exactly half-way between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such is probably what is to be expected when your life is reigned by investigating vice and virtue in the novels of Honoré de Balzac. The title that Brookner chose for her debut being the same as the novel Balzac published in 1842 speaks volumes in this respect – and will also turn out rather ironic, both from the point of view of her protagonist Ruth Weiss as for Anita Brookner herself, who before turning to fiction already was an established author in art history.
Disappointment was now built into any hope she might have had left.
Having been mostly brought up by her stern Jewish-German parental grandmother, Ruth Weiss grows up as a scrupulous and thoughtful young woman, torn between her longing for freedom, space and air and the demands that are made on her as a dutiful daughter. When the grandmother dies, her childish, selfish and irresponsible parents force her to become the adult the room, reversing the roles, shamelessly exploiting Ruth like in the nineteenth century novels Ruth reads. The crumbling down of the home into a dirty mess and the depiction of the parents, ever more clumsy in organising ordinary life, joined by a chain-smoking housekeeper who avoids cooking and cleaning, hilariously counterpoises poor Ruth’s earnestness in life.
In this increasingly insane household, in which her mother Helen retreats to living mostly in bed, followed by the father and the housekeeper, Ruth reminded me of Saffy, the serious daughter constantly caring of her immature mother Edina in Absoluty Fabulous. Ruth doesn’t turn cynic though – thanks to her interior conversations with Balzac and the characters of his novels.
Ruth, who knew most of this by instinct, began to think of the world in terms of Balzacian opportunism. Her insights improved. She perceived that most tales of morality were wrong, that even Charles Dickens was wrong, and that the world is not won by virtue. Eternal life, perhaps — but who knows about that? Not the world. If the moral code she had learnt, through the literature she was now beginning to reinterpret, were correct, she should surely have flourished in her heavy unbecoming coat, in her laborious solitude, with her notes and the daily bus ride and the healthful lonely walks.
From staying for research in Paris and a couple of lovers and the heroines of Balzac, she learns the limits of virtue and duty, experiencing that vice and frivolity might mean more fun. In Paris, she learns that good girls go to heaven and bad girls go everywhere. Nevertheless, Ruth in her heart deplores that virtue isn’t rewarded in real life like it is in books:
Yet she was aware of something out of joint. She would have preferred the books to have been right. The patient striving for virtue, the long term of trial, the ecstasy of earned reward.
Even more than her later novels Hotel du Lac and Family And Friends, A Start in Life reads like a nineteenth century novel, breathing a similar atmosphere of bygone times, including the stays at spa towns like Baden-Baden, or travel destinations for the wealthy with nineteenth century grandeur like Scheveningen, or Vevey, the pearl of the Swiss Riviera. Nevertheless, Ruth Weiss has to find her place as a woman, navigate family, work, romantic love and marriage in times where is there is no manual for morality and the many divergent role models offered by literature leave the modern woman longing for love clueless.
She studied the couple closely, as if they were an unknown species. They were, in fact, an unknown species. They were happy.
Tessa Hadley ranked A start in Life among Anita Brookner’s five best novels. Having only read three so far, I am not sure I would agree, but comfortably uncomfortable like snuggly reading in bed with the crumbs of breakfast digging in your back, Anita Brookner’s witty sense of humour, elegant prose and perceptive observations makes this tragicomedy of manners a delight to read.
In her room Ruth read of cottages blasted by northern winds, of country mansions with spacious lawns, of Parisian lodging houses teeming with intrigue and activity, of miners’ back-to-backs vibrating with the heat of banked-up coal fires, of home farms and rectories, of villas and castles, of gardens and pièces d’eau, of journeys and sojourns abroad. Was real life always so untenanted? Or was real life a distillation from ordinary mundane disappointment?
From her fiction debut in 1981 on, Anita Brookner welcomes the reader in her comfortably uncomfortable world of solitude, loneliness, slight disappointment in life and love, dark stuffy flats with heavy furniture and family gloominess counterweighed by books.
If this sounds cozy and appealing enough to avid readers, Brookner doesn’t hide that for some readers books are rather a honey trap, deluding one’s expectations and ideas how life should be – an outright danger, which brings Emma Bovary to mind.
Professor in literature Ruth Weiss is an apt illustration of such a reader, and an easy victim for literary lure, knowing, at forty, that her life had been ruined by literature. Finding herself exactly half-way between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such is probably what is to be expected when your life is reigned by investigating vice and virtue in the novels of Honoré de Balzac. The title that Brookner chose for her debut being the same as the novel Balzac published in 1842 speaks volumes in this respect – and will also turn out rather ironic, both from the point of view of her protagonist Ruth Weiss as for Anita Brookner herself, who before turning to fiction already was an established author in art history.
Disappointment was now built into any hope she might have had left.
Having been mostly brought up by her stern Jewish-German parental grandmother, Ruth Weiss grows up as a scrupulous and thoughtful young woman, torn between her longing for freedom, space and air and the demands that are made on her as a dutiful daughter. When the grandmother dies, her childish, selfish and irresponsible parents force her to become the adult the room, reversing the roles, shamelessly exploiting Ruth like in the nineteenth century novels Ruth reads. The crumbling down of the home into a dirty mess and the depiction of the parents, ever more clumsy in organising ordinary life, joined by a chain-smoking housekeeper who avoids cooking and cleaning, hilariously counterpoises poor Ruth’s earnestness in life.
In this increasingly insane household, in which her mother Helen retreats to living mostly in bed, followed by the father and the housekeeper, Ruth reminded me of Saffy, the serious daughter constantly caring of her immature mother Edina in Absoluty Fabulous. Ruth doesn’t turn cynic though – thanks to her interior conversations with Balzac and the characters of his novels.
Ruth, who knew most of this by instinct, began to think of the world in terms of Balzacian opportunism. Her insights improved. She perceived that most tales of morality were wrong, that even Charles Dickens was wrong, and that the world is not won by virtue. Eternal life, perhaps — but who knows about that? Not the world. If the moral code she had learnt, through the literature she was now beginning to reinterpret, were correct, she should surely have flourished in her heavy unbecoming coat, in her laborious solitude, with her notes and the daily bus ride and the healthful lonely walks.
From staying for research in Paris and a couple of lovers and the heroines of Balzac, she learns the limits of virtue and duty, experiencing that vice and frivolity might mean more fun. In Paris, she learns that good girls go to heaven and bad girls go everywhere. Nevertheless, Ruth in her heart deplores that virtue isn’t rewarded in real life like it is in books:
Yet she was aware of something out of joint. She would have preferred the books to have been right. The patient striving for virtue, the long term of trial, the ecstasy of earned reward.
Even more than her later novels Hotel du Lac and Family And Friends, A Start in Life reads like a nineteenth century novel, breathing a similar atmosphere of bygone times, including the stays at spa towns like Baden-Baden, or travel destinations for the wealthy with nineteenth century grandeur like Scheveningen, or Vevey, the pearl of the Swiss Riviera. Nevertheless, Ruth Weiss has to find her place as a woman, navigate family, work, romantic love and marriage in times where is there is no manual for morality and the many divergent role models offered by literature leave the modern woman longing for love clueless.
She studied the couple closely, as if they were an unknown species. They were, in fact, an unknown species. They were happy.
Tessa Hadley ranked A start in Life among Anita Brookner’s five best novels. Having only read three so far, I am not sure I would agree, but comfortably uncomfortable like snuggly reading in bed with the crumbs of breakfast digging in your back, Anita Brookner’s witty sense of humour, elegant prose and perceptive observations makes this tragicomedy of manners a delight to read.
November 16, 2025
Contains spoilers! (Although if you’ve read other Anita Brookner novels, you already know what happens!) As in Brookner’s other novels, we have a plain, friendless girl whose life is reading and hanging out in museums and libraries.
Her father owns a struggling bookshop. Her mother is a stage actress who also has bit parts in television. As her mother ages, the phone stops ringing and she exiles herself to the bedroom, drinking and smoking and talking of the old days. Her husband and maid also smoke and drink and chat all day forming a happy, often exuberant, three-some that excludes the young girl.
When she was a very young girl, the household was run by her grandmother. She knew that “…without her grandmother there might be no more food.” While the little girl thinks her parents are glamourous and beautiful, “…to her grandmother they were fools.”
At college she has only one girlfriend who is beautiful. (The girlfriend doesn’t have to worry about the main character stealing her boyfriends). The friend is amazed at the main character’s naivete and constantly advises her to move out of her parent’s house, get some style in her clothes and hair and so on.
After college and an almost-affair, she gets a job as a lecturer and she works on her dissertation about the women in Balzac’s novels. She goes to Paris and hangs out by herself in libraries and museums. She has an affair with her elderly faculty advisor but comes back home when her mother is ill. She lives with her parents and takes care of them. Later in life she marries but very shortly her husband dies and once again she is back, basically alone, taking care of her father. That is her life.
Some good writing that I liked:
Her home “resembled a superficial veil of amusement over a deep well of disappointment.”
“To the child is seemed as if all dining rooms must be dark, as if sodden with a miasma of gravy and tears.”
“The doleful atmosphere at mealtimes the child assumed to be universal, as if the faintly sour flavors of the buttermilk, rye bread, caraway seeds, cucumbers, had something penitential about them.”
“…she was attractive enough for a clever woman, but it was only as a clever woman that she was attractive.”
“In the country of the old and sick there are environmental hazards. Cautious days. Early nights. A silent, aging life in which the anxiety of the invalid overrides the vitality of the untouched. A wariness, in case the untoward might go undetected. Sudden gratitude that turns bitterness into self-reproach.”
“Eventually he asked her to marry him. In this he showed sense; it is best to marry for purely selfish reasons.”
Yes, all Anita Brookner’s novels are very much alike (I’ve read a half-dozen) but I enjoy the story and the good writing.
I’ve enjoyed many other novels by Anita Brookner and below are links to my reviews of them. The two I enjoyed most were Hotel du Lac and Making Things Better. (I gave those two novels a rating of 5; all the others, 4.)
The Bay of Angels
A Friend from England
Look at Me
Hotel du Lac
Making Things Better
Altered States
A Private View
Visitors
Dolly
Undue Influence
Top photo of a London bookshop from assets.londonist.com
Photo of the author from ichef.bbci.co.uk/news
Her father owns a struggling bookshop. Her mother is a stage actress who also has bit parts in television. As her mother ages, the phone stops ringing and she exiles herself to the bedroom, drinking and smoking and talking of the old days. Her husband and maid also smoke and drink and chat all day forming a happy, often exuberant, three-some that excludes the young girl.
When she was a very young girl, the household was run by her grandmother. She knew that “…without her grandmother there might be no more food.” While the little girl thinks her parents are glamourous and beautiful, “…to her grandmother they were fools.”
At college she has only one girlfriend who is beautiful. (The girlfriend doesn’t have to worry about the main character stealing her boyfriends). The friend is amazed at the main character’s naivete and constantly advises her to move out of her parent’s house, get some style in her clothes and hair and so on.
After college and an almost-affair, she gets a job as a lecturer and she works on her dissertation about the women in Balzac’s novels. She goes to Paris and hangs out by herself in libraries and museums. She has an affair with her elderly faculty advisor but comes back home when her mother is ill. She lives with her parents and takes care of them. Later in life she marries but very shortly her husband dies and once again she is back, basically alone, taking care of her father. That is her life.
Some good writing that I liked:
Her home “resembled a superficial veil of amusement over a deep well of disappointment.”
“To the child is seemed as if all dining rooms must be dark, as if sodden with a miasma of gravy and tears.”
“The doleful atmosphere at mealtimes the child assumed to be universal, as if the faintly sour flavors of the buttermilk, rye bread, caraway seeds, cucumbers, had something penitential about them.”
“…she was attractive enough for a clever woman, but it was only as a clever woman that she was attractive.”
“In the country of the old and sick there are environmental hazards. Cautious days. Early nights. A silent, aging life in which the anxiety of the invalid overrides the vitality of the untouched. A wariness, in case the untoward might go undetected. Sudden gratitude that turns bitterness into self-reproach.”
“Eventually he asked her to marry him. In this he showed sense; it is best to marry for purely selfish reasons.”
Yes, all Anita Brookner’s novels are very much alike (I’ve read a half-dozen) but I enjoy the story and the good writing.
I’ve enjoyed many other novels by Anita Brookner and below are links to my reviews of them. The two I enjoyed most were Hotel du Lac and Making Things Better. (I gave those two novels a rating of 5; all the others, 4.)
The Bay of Angels
A Friend from England
Look at Me
Hotel du Lac
Making Things Better
Altered States
A Private View
Visitors
Dolly
Undue Influence
Top photo of a London bookshop from assets.londonist.com
Photo of the author from ichef.bbci.co.uk/news
November 10, 2025
This was Anita Brookner’s debut novel, and it was originally titled A START IN LIFE, in the UK.
THE DEBUT was my first offering of Ms. Brookner’s, and it was obvious to me, after reading only one article, that this story was largely autobiographical.
Poor Ms. Brookner. It seems that her parents were “old school” Polish parents who emigrated to England and then did not age well. Their care was entrusted to a young Anita, an only child, who served them and forfeited her own life.
Ms. Brookner never married or had kids nor truly actualized her childhood dreams, but, take heart, friends, she did get her revenge! She published this, her first novel, at the age of 53, then went on to publish almost every year after that, winning both the Booker Prize and living until almost 90.
Our protagonist here, Ruth, is very much the same sort of prisoner of fate, though I suspect her parents were probably quite different from Anita Brookner’s. The fictional ones are both childlike and irresponsible (much like my own), and they won’t take any sort of accountability for their behavior. They live in filth, idealize the past, and show very little affection to Ruth.
Ruth felt like a fetus to me: present, but not fully formed. Whenever other characters would comment about her, I would find myself feeling surprised and wondering: Is she? All I really knew about her was that she had red hair, because every character with red hair always talks about it. (Enter the newest entry for my so you have red hair shelf).
Both titles, the British and the American versions, are meaningless, and my Vintage publication was filled with typos and a glaring error that completely disrupted the plot.
As far as I’m concerned, Ms. Brookner’s debut novel revealed the typical types of mistakes that many other “first time novelists” make: more “telling” than “talking,” underdeveloped settings, a quick wrap-up at the end that didn’t honor the trajectory of the story.
This book deserved better editing, but the good news is, it was pretty obvious, at least to this reader, that Ms. Brookner’s work was going to get sharper and tighter, from this point on. Her Booker Prize win, just 3 years later, confirms my suspicion.
The storytelling is solid here; I found myself looking forward to each night’s next installment. It’s a sad story, though, and it’s a story I’ve been reading a bit too much of lately: how sad our lives can become, midlife, and how scarce, almost nonexistent, are the opportunities for love or adventure again, after a certain age.
Is it really all over? Is this all that we get? As my grandmother used to say, “I feel badly for the whole world.”
She moved her face compulsively on the pillow. “My darling,” sighed Helen. “Darling heart.” Lying so close to her mother, hearing the words of love, and knowing, in the course of that long night, that she would hear no others, Ruth covered her face and wept.
Groan.
(3.5, rounded up to 4)
THE DEBUT was my first offering of Ms. Brookner’s, and it was obvious to me, after reading only one article, that this story was largely autobiographical.
Poor Ms. Brookner. It seems that her parents were “old school” Polish parents who emigrated to England and then did not age well. Their care was entrusted to a young Anita, an only child, who served them and forfeited her own life.
Ms. Brookner never married or had kids nor truly actualized her childhood dreams, but, take heart, friends, she did get her revenge! She published this, her first novel, at the age of 53, then went on to publish almost every year after that, winning both the Booker Prize and living until almost 90.
Our protagonist here, Ruth, is very much the same sort of prisoner of fate, though I suspect her parents were probably quite different from Anita Brookner’s. The fictional ones are both childlike and irresponsible (much like my own), and they won’t take any sort of accountability for their behavior. They live in filth, idealize the past, and show very little affection to Ruth.
Ruth felt like a fetus to me: present, but not fully formed. Whenever other characters would comment about her, I would find myself feeling surprised and wondering: Is she? All I really knew about her was that she had red hair, because every character with red hair always talks about it. (Enter the newest entry for my so you have red hair shelf).
Both titles, the British and the American versions, are meaningless, and my Vintage publication was filled with typos and a glaring error that completely disrupted the plot.
As far as I’m concerned, Ms. Brookner’s debut novel revealed the typical types of mistakes that many other “first time novelists” make: more “telling” than “talking,” underdeveloped settings, a quick wrap-up at the end that didn’t honor the trajectory of the story.
This book deserved better editing, but the good news is, it was pretty obvious, at least to this reader, that Ms. Brookner’s work was going to get sharper and tighter, from this point on. Her Booker Prize win, just 3 years later, confirms my suspicion.
The storytelling is solid here; I found myself looking forward to each night’s next installment. It’s a sad story, though, and it’s a story I’ve been reading a bit too much of lately: how sad our lives can become, midlife, and how scarce, almost nonexistent, are the opportunities for love or adventure again, after a certain age.
Is it really all over? Is this all that we get? As my grandmother used to say, “I feel badly for the whole world.”
She moved her face compulsively on the pillow. “My darling,” sighed Helen. “Darling heart.” Lying so close to her mother, hearing the words of love, and knowing, in the course of that long night, that she would hear no others, Ruth covered her face and wept.
Groan.
(3.5, rounded up to 4)
February 21, 2021
Филологический хоррор о женщине, которая принимала за жизнь то, что в итоге оказалось литературоведением.
December 1, 2020
Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.
With this one line, Anita Brookner, hitherto an esteemed art historian, introduced herself to the world in 1981 as a novelist. And who wouldn't keep reading after that intriguing line?
The Dr's name is Ruth Weiss, a London-based specialist in French literature, who's written one volume in her projected three-volume series on Women in Balzac's Novels. We're told that that book met with "discreet acclaim," and the same could be said about Brookner's works, too, which, aside from her Booker Award-winning Hotel du Lac were well-reviewed but hardly bestsellers.
After the delightful opening chapter, we flash back to see how Ruth ended up where she is. She's the daughter of Helen, a glamorous, self-absorbed theatre actress who specializes in soubrette roles, and George, who runs his mother's antiquarian bookshop. Both have had affairs. When George's stern, responsible mother, whom Ruth most resembles, passes away, the household starts to crumble, especially after the hiring of a Mrs. Cutler, a chain-smoking housekeeper who barely does any work but simply indulges Helen's whims.
Somehow Ruth's academic ability is spotted by a teacher, and she goes on to college, where she is academically successful but unpopular. She spends most of her time at the library, avoiding her family altogether. And then she gets a grant to study in Paris. Will her life finally begin? And will she have that start in life promised by the novels she so adores?
Brookner's prose is clean, clear and full of sharp observations. There's nothing fussy or gimmicky about her style, her plots or her characters. The third-person narration is witty and ironic. Brookner sees everyone's foibles and vanities. What's interesting is that there's no harsh judgement meted out.
Ruth is a likeable, hard-working if slightly passive character, and we root for her, much as we would a Dickens heroine. But one of Brookner's points is that life isn't a Dickens novel.
This is only the second of her novels I've read. I've got a few more on my bookshelves. Something about the chilly autumnal air – and this unusual year we're having – makes her work especially absorbing. It's not that her books are cozy and comforting, exactly; but she doesn't tell any lies. She sees the truth in all of us, and there's comfort enough in that.
With this one line, Anita Brookner, hitherto an esteemed art historian, introduced herself to the world in 1981 as a novelist. And who wouldn't keep reading after that intriguing line?
The Dr's name is Ruth Weiss, a London-based specialist in French literature, who's written one volume in her projected three-volume series on Women in Balzac's Novels. We're told that that book met with "discreet acclaim," and the same could be said about Brookner's works, too, which, aside from her Booker Award-winning Hotel du Lac were well-reviewed but hardly bestsellers.
After the delightful opening chapter, we flash back to see how Ruth ended up where she is. She's the daughter of Helen, a glamorous, self-absorbed theatre actress who specializes in soubrette roles, and George, who runs his mother's antiquarian bookshop. Both have had affairs. When George's stern, responsible mother, whom Ruth most resembles, passes away, the household starts to crumble, especially after the hiring of a Mrs. Cutler, a chain-smoking housekeeper who barely does any work but simply indulges Helen's whims.
Somehow Ruth's academic ability is spotted by a teacher, and she goes on to college, where she is academically successful but unpopular. She spends most of her time at the library, avoiding her family altogether. And then she gets a grant to study in Paris. Will her life finally begin? And will she have that start in life promised by the novels she so adores?
Brookner's prose is clean, clear and full of sharp observations. There's nothing fussy or gimmicky about her style, her plots or her characters. The third-person narration is witty and ironic. Brookner sees everyone's foibles and vanities. What's interesting is that there's no harsh judgement meted out.
Ruth is a likeable, hard-working if slightly passive character, and we root for her, much as we would a Dickens heroine. But one of Brookner's points is that life isn't a Dickens novel.
This is only the second of her novels I've read. I've got a few more on my bookshelves. Something about the chilly autumnal air – and this unusual year we're having – makes her work especially absorbing. It's not that her books are cozy and comforting, exactly; but she doesn't tell any lies. She sees the truth in all of us, and there's comfort enough in that.
February 3, 2019
This was somehow the perfect book to read while my Mom stayed with me a few days because Ruth, at 40, is reflecting on her journey away from home and a strange parental situation. (I am also 40.) How responsible are we for our parents? How invested are our parents in our success, or are they more self-motivated than that?
I'm not sure I found this book to match the publisher summary very well but I may need to reread it before discussing it on the podcast. More soon.
I'm not sure I found this book to match the publisher summary very well but I may need to reread it before discussing it on the podcast. More soon.
August 9, 2022
3.5
The title of Brookner’s first novel, aka A Start in Life, is a fitting one. It also refers to Un début dans la vie by Honoré de Balzac, whose works are the academic focus of the protagonist, Dr. Ruth Weiss. More important to the woman who believes “her life had been ruined by literature” is the main character of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet, referenced throughout.
In the beginning I was strongly reminded of Brookner’s third novel, Look at Me, with the self-centered parents, who are more present in the plot of this story; and the married couple Ruth befriends, though here the couple are benign. While I found Look At Me more intense than The Debut, the latter is still pure Brookner with her trademark irony and (even if detached) cri du cœur.
The title of Brookner’s first novel, aka A Start in Life, is a fitting one. It also refers to Un début dans la vie by Honoré de Balzac, whose works are the academic focus of the protagonist, Dr. Ruth Weiss. More important to the woman who believes “her life had been ruined by literature” is the main character of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet, referenced throughout.
In the beginning I was strongly reminded of Brookner’s third novel, Look at Me, with the self-centered parents, who are more present in the plot of this story; and the married couple Ruth befriends, though here the couple are benign. While I found Look At Me more intense than The Debut, the latter is still pure Brookner with her trademark irony and (even if detached) cri du cœur.
February 5, 2018
Lo he leído tan rápido que me habría gustado que tuviese doscientas páginas más. Ruth, una mujer de cuarenta años, profesora de Universidad, recuerda la adolescente que fue y la adulta en la que se convirtió de la mano de los libros que eran su refugio. Una buena historia contada de forma excelente con unos personajes secundarios muy bien definidos con sus aristas y sus debilidades. Una #joyita. Estoy deseando leer más cosas de esta autora que me ha impresionado por su estilo sencillo y elegante.
August 6, 2017
A weirdly hypnotic tragicomedy of the banal; I can easily imagine it as a stage play – perhaps it might pass for something by Coward or Wilde. The players are Ruth, a naive and bookish young woman; her parents, spoilt actress Helen and feckless bookseller George; and Mrs Cutler, the Weiss family's waspish, chainsmoking housekeeper.
Dr Ruth Weiss is first introduced to us as a forty-year-old academic (and spinster), but the majority of the story is about her adolescence and early adulthood. From a young age, Ruth, neglected by her self-involved parents, loses herself in books. Romance obsesses yet eludes her: there is one evening with Richard, a young man who is widely considered beautiful but has 'an ulcer' which necessitates the cooking of exceptionally bland dishes. So disastrous is this evening that Ruth is compelled to move out of her flat. With her sole romantic prospect extinguished, Ruth goes to Paris and stays in the miserable servants' quarters of an elderly couple, friends of her parents. Throughout, Ruth, a devotee of Balzac, wrestles with the ideas of vice and virtue. As in Brookner's Look At Me, the time period is indistinct, with some details that feel incredibly dated and others alarmingly modern.
Ruth is the protagonist, but – and this I didn't expect – we learn a lot about the interior lives of the others too. George has an affair with a motherly employee, in whose flat (to her mounting frustration) he installs expensive contraptions he has bought himself from department stores: record player, sun lamp, portable grill, Teasmade. Helen becomes a recluse and wastes away, mourning the loss of her career, looks and social influence. Mrs Cutler resolves to marry again late in life, doing so via a 'marriage bureau'. Brookner has a gift for precise, startling description: the furniture Ruth's grandmother brings over from Berlin, 'in dark woods which looked as though they had absorbed the blood of horses'; the late scene in which the remarried Mrs Cutler appears at the Weiss home, resplendently vulgar in 'a fun fur coat and high-heeled boots'.
The solitudinous world that Brookner's heroines inhabit is so seductive to me, even when I understand it is not intended to be so. Or perhaps it's simply that she makes home and family life look so hellish that it's difficult not to see wandering the streets alone as an idyllic respite. Poor Ruth gets little more than an ironic final sentence as compensation for her depressing 'start in life', one which sadly brings her back where she began.
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Quotes
That opening sentence, of course: 'Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.'
p8: 'Her appearance and character were exactly half-way between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; she was scrupulous, passionate, thoughtful, and given to self-analysis, but her colleagues thought her merely scrupulous, noting her neatness with approval, and assuming that her absent and slightly haggard expression denoted a tricky passage in Balzac. In fact she was extreme in her expectations and although those expectations had never been fulfilled she had learnt nothing.'
p16: 'Their great strength, had she but known it, was that they were able to voice every passing anxiety. This process, which sounded like a litany of hardship, was in fact an alleviation of disappointment. The child registered only their disappointment, and felt apologetic about her presence which somehow marred the hectic honeymoon presence which they sought to prolong.'
p22: 'Adolescence? It was hardly an adolescence as other girls knew it, waking up to their temporary but so exhilarating power over men. No slow smiles, no experimental flaunting, no assumed mystery for Ruth. She was in no hurry to enter the adult world, knowing in advance, and she was not wrong, that she was badly equipped for being there. In any event it seemed unattractive and nothing to do with her.'
p23: 'Tell me, Ruth,' she said, as they emerged from the bus at the other end of their journey. 'Do you understand everything you read? Does it ever worry you?'
'Yes,' said Ruth, to both questions.'
p75: 'An urge to stay all day in the divine air of late September was like a physical quickening of her blood. Almost, she was happy. Or perhaps she recognised that this was how happiness felt. All one needed was a pretext. If there were no pretext, one needed an analogue. But Ruth, walking endlessly, was content to experience the unlooked for exhilaration, to hope, to beg, that one day, some day, she might find a reason for feeling as she did, buoyant, serene, anaesthetised against everyday hurts. She imagined, wrongly, that being in love was like this. With love comes seriousness, loss of autonomy, responsibility without power.'
p94: 'A great desire for change came over Ruth and a great uncertainty as to how this might be brought about. For she knew, obscurely, that she had capacities as yet untried but that they might be for ever walled up unless her circumstances changed.'
p99: 'She perceived that most tales of morality were wrong, that even Charles Dickens was wrong, and that the world is not won by virtue. Eternal life, perhaps – but who knows about that? Not the world.'
p131: 'She sat down on the edge of the bath, trembling. Could this still happen? Could this abortive, unfinished business disturb her so profoundly? Would she always react the same way to those who did not want her, trying ever more hopelessly to please, while others, better disposed, went off unregarded?'
Dr Ruth Weiss is first introduced to us as a forty-year-old academic (and spinster), but the majority of the story is about her adolescence and early adulthood. From a young age, Ruth, neglected by her self-involved parents, loses herself in books. Romance obsesses yet eludes her: there is one evening with Richard, a young man who is widely considered beautiful but has 'an ulcer' which necessitates the cooking of exceptionally bland dishes. So disastrous is this evening that Ruth is compelled to move out of her flat. With her sole romantic prospect extinguished, Ruth goes to Paris and stays in the miserable servants' quarters of an elderly couple, friends of her parents. Throughout, Ruth, a devotee of Balzac, wrestles with the ideas of vice and virtue. As in Brookner's Look At Me, the time period is indistinct, with some details that feel incredibly dated and others alarmingly modern.
Ruth is the protagonist, but – and this I didn't expect – we learn a lot about the interior lives of the others too. George has an affair with a motherly employee, in whose flat (to her mounting frustration) he installs expensive contraptions he has bought himself from department stores: record player, sun lamp, portable grill, Teasmade. Helen becomes a recluse and wastes away, mourning the loss of her career, looks and social influence. Mrs Cutler resolves to marry again late in life, doing so via a 'marriage bureau'. Brookner has a gift for precise, startling description: the furniture Ruth's grandmother brings over from Berlin, 'in dark woods which looked as though they had absorbed the blood of horses'; the late scene in which the remarried Mrs Cutler appears at the Weiss home, resplendently vulgar in 'a fun fur coat and high-heeled boots'.
The solitudinous world that Brookner's heroines inhabit is so seductive to me, even when I understand it is not intended to be so. Or perhaps it's simply that she makes home and family life look so hellish that it's difficult not to see wandering the streets alone as an idyllic respite. Poor Ruth gets little more than an ironic final sentence as compensation for her depressing 'start in life', one which sadly brings her back where she began.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
---
Quotes
That opening sentence, of course: 'Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.'
p8: 'Her appearance and character were exactly half-way between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; she was scrupulous, passionate, thoughtful, and given to self-analysis, but her colleagues thought her merely scrupulous, noting her neatness with approval, and assuming that her absent and slightly haggard expression denoted a tricky passage in Balzac. In fact she was extreme in her expectations and although those expectations had never been fulfilled she had learnt nothing.'
p16: 'Their great strength, had she but known it, was that they were able to voice every passing anxiety. This process, which sounded like a litany of hardship, was in fact an alleviation of disappointment. The child registered only their disappointment, and felt apologetic about her presence which somehow marred the hectic honeymoon presence which they sought to prolong.'
p22: 'Adolescence? It was hardly an adolescence as other girls knew it, waking up to their temporary but so exhilarating power over men. No slow smiles, no experimental flaunting, no assumed mystery for Ruth. She was in no hurry to enter the adult world, knowing in advance, and she was not wrong, that she was badly equipped for being there. In any event it seemed unattractive and nothing to do with her.'
p23: 'Tell me, Ruth,' she said, as they emerged from the bus at the other end of their journey. 'Do you understand everything you read? Does it ever worry you?'
'Yes,' said Ruth, to both questions.'
p75: 'An urge to stay all day in the divine air of late September was like a physical quickening of her blood. Almost, she was happy. Or perhaps she recognised that this was how happiness felt. All one needed was a pretext. If there were no pretext, one needed an analogue. But Ruth, walking endlessly, was content to experience the unlooked for exhilaration, to hope, to beg, that one day, some day, she might find a reason for feeling as she did, buoyant, serene, anaesthetised against everyday hurts. She imagined, wrongly, that being in love was like this. With love comes seriousness, loss of autonomy, responsibility without power.'
p94: 'A great desire for change came over Ruth and a great uncertainty as to how this might be brought about. For she knew, obscurely, that she had capacities as yet untried but that they might be for ever walled up unless her circumstances changed.'
p99: 'She perceived that most tales of morality were wrong, that even Charles Dickens was wrong, and that the world is not won by virtue. Eternal life, perhaps – but who knows about that? Not the world.'
p131: 'She sat down on the edge of the bath, trembling. Could this still happen? Could this abortive, unfinished business disturb her so profoundly? Would she always react the same way to those who did not want her, trying ever more hopelessly to please, while others, better disposed, went off unregarded?'
August 19, 2008
A tale of how literature can ruin one's life? Like many of Brookner's books, the time period feels loose, but that doesn't really matter. It's a (mostly) sad tale of an eccentric and dysfunctional family, especially their only child, mainly in her teens and beyond as she tries to make her own life, via studying and latterly teaching about the women in Balzac's novels. The knowingness of others (in her life and the fiction she reads) is an interesting counterpoint to her own naivety.
December 27, 2020
This was Anita Brookner's first novel, and her first line: "Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature." demonstrates that what made her special was there from the start. The rest of this short novel explores how the Dr Ruth Weiss of the title reached this point, and is a very entertaining if slightly sad comedy of manners. I have not read most of Brookner's French literary reference points (her heroine is an expert on Balzac) and I suspect there is more going on that I picked up.
The young Ruth is mostly brought up by her grandparents, while her actress mother pursues her career and her father George runs a bookshop. After the grandmother dies, the mother hires a housekeeper and does less and less, becoming more or less confined to her room. Ruth tries to escape their limited expectations of her but largely fails.
The young Ruth is mostly brought up by her grandparents, while her actress mother pursues her career and her father George runs a bookshop. After the grandmother dies, the mother hires a housekeeper and does less and less, becoming more or less confined to her room. Ruth tries to escape their limited expectations of her but largely fails.
May 8, 2019
I spent the previous weekend in Helsinki, which has several bookstores with a rather appealing collection of English-language books. One of those bookstores for some inexplicable reason featured a bunch of Anita Brookner books so in my surprise and excitement I picked up three of them, which I didn't yet have on my ebook. A Start in Life is Brookner's first novel and somehow I felt it would be most fitting to start (or rather continue, since I recently read Hotel du Lac) my exploration of her work with it.
This is a clever, well-written and funny book about, first and foremost, loneliness, which, I gather, is what Brookner is famous for. Most of us, especially the thinking types, are lonely, one way or another, and Brookner embraces this loneliness and shows that it is probably one of the better tools to explore our lives and our inner selves. This is a short novel, the sentences are simple yet impactful, providing the reader with a lot of food for thought, most of it quite uncomfortable. It is interesting how something so devastatingly sad can be at the same time so incredibly joyous. In fact, the only thing that makes me sad is that she started writing so late in life. On the bright side, she was very prolific so it will be quite a while until I read through all of her books.
This is a clever, well-written and funny book about, first and foremost, loneliness, which, I gather, is what Brookner is famous for. Most of us, especially the thinking types, are lonely, one way or another, and Brookner embraces this loneliness and shows that it is probably one of the better tools to explore our lives and our inner selves. This is a short novel, the sentences are simple yet impactful, providing the reader with a lot of food for thought, most of it quite uncomfortable. It is interesting how something so devastatingly sad can be at the same time so incredibly joyous. In fact, the only thing that makes me sad is that she started writing so late in life. On the bright side, she was very prolific so it will be quite a while until I read through all of her books.
January 25, 2018
Con su humor extraño, sus personajes excéntricos y sus referencias a grandes clásicos literarios me ha atrapado desde el inicio y no he podido soltarla. Una maravilla.
January 22, 2018
«A sus cuarenta años, la doctora Weiss comprendió que la literatura le había destrozado la vida», es la rotunda y contundente afirmación con la que Anita Brookner nos presenta la historia de Ruth Weiss, una solitaria e introvertida profesora que se halla inmersa en la redacción de su tesis sobre las mujeres en la obra de Balzac. Un debut en la vida es una fascinante novela de personajes que atraviesan el ojo clínico de la autora británica para revelarnos la devastadora fragilidad del romanticismo literario. Caracterizada por su espíritu analítico, Un debut en la vida es una lectura sorprendente, enriquecedora y extrañamente divertida, como contar un chiste en un funeral. Por supuesto, no todo el mundo apreciará la retorcida satisfacción que se obtiene de soltar una carcajada en presencia de un cadáver. Para el resto, esta magnífica novela de Anita Brookner puede suponer un auténtico oasis de felicidad, un inesperado hallazgo que, lejos de destrozarte la vida, conseguirá hacerla más llevadera.
RESEÑA COMPLETA: http://generacionreader.blogspot.com....
RESEÑA COMPLETA: http://generacionreader.blogspot.com....
August 14, 2016
Pay no attention to the blurb here, which is very misleading; her childlike parents do not give Ruth "hothouse attentions," but instead ignore and neglect her unless they need something, like a cup of tea or a room cleaned or a vacation planned or to be picked up from the hospital. Nor is the book about Dr. Weiss's "new start in life" at age forty, really.
The novel starts with the arresting sentence "Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature." This does lead you to think that we will be examining Dr. Weiss's life from age forty on. But the book is about her childhood, adolescence, and very early twenties, as she has managed to escape her parents' needy grasp by going to university (they didn't see the need for it) and then spending a year in France studying Balzac for her dissertation. This year in France enables Ruth to blossom, date men, get a new haircut and more fashionable clothes, and have the novel experience of a man doting on her. (On her first date in college, she cooked an elaborate chicken and rice meal for a goodlooking man who showed up hours late, at which point only a small portion of the meal was salvageable, which she fed to him, going hungry herself.)
Ruth can't completely escape doormat status, as Rhoda, the elderly woman she shares living space with, will only let her have a bath at 6 p.m., so she has to rush home from the Bibliothèque nationale at five or she will miss being clean, and as Rhoda's lecherous husband Humphrey watches her through a crack in the bathroom door.
But back home in London, her parents' lives are unraveling and they greedily summon her home. Their housekeeper, well on in years, is improbably getting married and they can't live without someone filling that role. In the last eight pages, the novel quickly covers Ruth's life from ages 22-40.
Those who have read Eugénie Grandet (I haven't) will undoubtedly find parallels to that novel and this one, as Ruth often relates the circumstances of her life to it.
March 29, 2017
4.5 Stars
Back in September last year, I read an early Anita Brookner, Providence (1982), a novel I loved for its central characterisation and sensitive portrayal of life’s disappointments both large and small. By rights, I should have begun with her debut novel, A Start in Life (1981), but it wasn’t available at the time – hence the decision to go with Providence instead. Having just finished A Start in Life, I would have no hesitation in recommending it as an excellent introduction to Brookner’s style and themes. In some ways, it is a richer novel than Providence, more rounded and fleshed out. I hope to find a place for it in my end-of-year highlights.
As A Start in Life opens, Ruth Weiss, a forty-year-old academic and expert on the women in Balzac’s novels, is looking back on her life, the striking opening lines setting the tone for the story that follows.
Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.
In her thoughtful and academic way, she put it down to her faulty moral education which dictated, through the conflicting but in this one instance united agencies of her mother and father, that she ponder the careers of Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary, but that she emulate those of David Copperfield and Little Dorrit. (p. 7)
Interestingly, the balance between the relative merits of pursuing a path of virtue vs. one of vice is a central theme in the novel – more on this point a little later in the review.
Winding back to Ruth’s childhood at the family home in West London, the picture is somewhat unconventional and chaotic. Ruth’s mother, Helen, a relatively successful actress (at least at first) is beautiful, spoilt, lazy and self-centred, a high-spirited woman who spares little thought for the future. By contrast, Ruth’s father, George, a dealer in rare books, devotes much of his time and energy to keeping his wife happy, enacting his role as Helen’s charming and attentive husband. Neither of them seems to have much time for Ruth whose care is largely entrusted to George’s mother, the elderly Mrs Weiss, who also shares the family home. Mrs Weiss is under no illusions about the rather feckless nature of her son’s wife. Moreover, she is concerned that Helen and George’s childlike behaviour and ‘facile love-play’ will damage Ruth in some way. As such, she does her best to maintain the household, looking out for the young girl wherever possible.
Unfortunately for Ruth, the situation deteriorates when Mrs Weiss dies, a development that prompts Helen to ‘get a woman in’ to look after the house. The housekeeper in question is Mrs Cutler, ‘a wry, spry widow, quick to take offence’. Mrs Cutler is a wonderful gossipy creation, and there are some priceless scenes as she begins to insert herself into the lives of Helen and George, always mindful of how to play the situation to her full advantage. Ruth, for her part, is pretty much left to her own devices as the household rapidly goes to pot.
As the years slip by, Helen starts to go downhill fairly dramatically. No longer in work, her looks begin to fade along with her previous zest for life, points that become abundantly clear to George when he catches Helen in one of her private moments.
The bones of her shoulders were sharply outlined. Her wedding ring was loose and sometimes she took it off. Her red hair was now a secret between herself and her hairdresser, and on the days when she was due to have it done she found the atmosphere in the streets threatening. Eventually, Mrs Cutler, the Hoover abandoned in the middle of the floor, would take her, leaving George to finish whatever work she had or had not been doing. On their return, both women would pronounce themselves exhausted, and Helen would retire to bed, where she knew she looked her best. George, harassed, would join her for a drink. Helen’s blue eyes, more prominent now in their pronounced sockets, would gaze out of the window with a wistful and ardent expression, her thoughts winging to past triumphs, part travels, past love affairs. George, looking at her in these unguarded moments, would be shocked to see how quickly she had aged. (p. 36)
George, for his part, finds solace in the company of Sally Jacobs, the widow who buys his book business, as a growing dependency develops between the two.
Meanwhile, Ruth begins to carve out a daily routine for herself. By now she is studying literature at one of the London Universities, living at home again after a brief and somewhat disastrous attempt to break away on her own in a room near the King’s Road – her dedicated attempt to woo an attractive fellow student, Richard, with a romantic dinner for two having ended in crushing disappointment. There are lectures in the morning, tutorials in the afternoon, library work in the evenings. In some ways, the relative safety/security of the University environment feels like more of a home to Ruth than her family residence in Oakwood Court. It’s a lonely existence, but it could be worse. Nevertheless, as Ruth reflects on her studies of Balzac, she begins to question whether there is more to life. Is the pursuit of a life of goodness and virtue the best path to the discovery of true love? Surely a little Balzacian opportunism wouldn’t go amiss for Ruth too?
To read the rest of my review, please click here:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2017...
Back in September last year, I read an early Anita Brookner, Providence (1982), a novel I loved for its central characterisation and sensitive portrayal of life’s disappointments both large and small. By rights, I should have begun with her debut novel, A Start in Life (1981), but it wasn’t available at the time – hence the decision to go with Providence instead. Having just finished A Start in Life, I would have no hesitation in recommending it as an excellent introduction to Brookner’s style and themes. In some ways, it is a richer novel than Providence, more rounded and fleshed out. I hope to find a place for it in my end-of-year highlights.
As A Start in Life opens, Ruth Weiss, a forty-year-old academic and expert on the women in Balzac’s novels, is looking back on her life, the striking opening lines setting the tone for the story that follows.
Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.
In her thoughtful and academic way, she put it down to her faulty moral education which dictated, through the conflicting but in this one instance united agencies of her mother and father, that she ponder the careers of Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary, but that she emulate those of David Copperfield and Little Dorrit. (p. 7)
Interestingly, the balance between the relative merits of pursuing a path of virtue vs. one of vice is a central theme in the novel – more on this point a little later in the review.
Winding back to Ruth’s childhood at the family home in West London, the picture is somewhat unconventional and chaotic. Ruth’s mother, Helen, a relatively successful actress (at least at first) is beautiful, spoilt, lazy and self-centred, a high-spirited woman who spares little thought for the future. By contrast, Ruth’s father, George, a dealer in rare books, devotes much of his time and energy to keeping his wife happy, enacting his role as Helen’s charming and attentive husband. Neither of them seems to have much time for Ruth whose care is largely entrusted to George’s mother, the elderly Mrs Weiss, who also shares the family home. Mrs Weiss is under no illusions about the rather feckless nature of her son’s wife. Moreover, she is concerned that Helen and George’s childlike behaviour and ‘facile love-play’ will damage Ruth in some way. As such, she does her best to maintain the household, looking out for the young girl wherever possible.
Unfortunately for Ruth, the situation deteriorates when Mrs Weiss dies, a development that prompts Helen to ‘get a woman in’ to look after the house. The housekeeper in question is Mrs Cutler, ‘a wry, spry widow, quick to take offence’. Mrs Cutler is a wonderful gossipy creation, and there are some priceless scenes as she begins to insert herself into the lives of Helen and George, always mindful of how to play the situation to her full advantage. Ruth, for her part, is pretty much left to her own devices as the household rapidly goes to pot.
As the years slip by, Helen starts to go downhill fairly dramatically. No longer in work, her looks begin to fade along with her previous zest for life, points that become abundantly clear to George when he catches Helen in one of her private moments.
The bones of her shoulders were sharply outlined. Her wedding ring was loose and sometimes she took it off. Her red hair was now a secret between herself and her hairdresser, and on the days when she was due to have it done she found the atmosphere in the streets threatening. Eventually, Mrs Cutler, the Hoover abandoned in the middle of the floor, would take her, leaving George to finish whatever work she had or had not been doing. On their return, both women would pronounce themselves exhausted, and Helen would retire to bed, where she knew she looked her best. George, harassed, would join her for a drink. Helen’s blue eyes, more prominent now in their pronounced sockets, would gaze out of the window with a wistful and ardent expression, her thoughts winging to past triumphs, part travels, past love affairs. George, looking at her in these unguarded moments, would be shocked to see how quickly she had aged. (p. 36)
George, for his part, finds solace in the company of Sally Jacobs, the widow who buys his book business, as a growing dependency develops between the two.
Meanwhile, Ruth begins to carve out a daily routine for herself. By now she is studying literature at one of the London Universities, living at home again after a brief and somewhat disastrous attempt to break away on her own in a room near the King’s Road – her dedicated attempt to woo an attractive fellow student, Richard, with a romantic dinner for two having ended in crushing disappointment. There are lectures in the morning, tutorials in the afternoon, library work in the evenings. In some ways, the relative safety/security of the University environment feels like more of a home to Ruth than her family residence in Oakwood Court. It’s a lonely existence, but it could be worse. Nevertheless, as Ruth reflects on her studies of Balzac, she begins to question whether there is more to life. Is the pursuit of a life of goodness and virtue the best path to the discovery of true love? Surely a little Balzacian opportunism wouldn’t go amiss for Ruth too?
To read the rest of my review, please click here:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2017...
August 2, 2024
It has been remarked (by my friend Paul, among others) that all Brookner novels are somewhat similar. This is my second one after Hotel du Lac, and I suppose this is true, and I also want to read all of her other novels :)
The writing is incredibly stylish, atmospheric, and clever. The characterization is brilliant, very precise and often humorous, but also, in a way, non-judgemental. This is not a happy book, but neither is it depressing... Although it does get sadder as it progresses.
It has Paris!
There are allusions to Balzac, too (I guess one can say this is a metatextual novel), but you don't have to read Balzac to understand this :)
A quick, but very enjoyable, and not at all superficial, read.
The writing is incredibly stylish, atmospheric, and clever. The characterization is brilliant, very precise and often humorous, but also, in a way, non-judgemental. This is not a happy book, but neither is it depressing... Although it does get sadder as it progresses.
It has Paris!
There are allusions to Balzac, too (I guess one can say this is a metatextual novel), but you don't have to read Balzac to understand this :)
A quick, but very enjoyable, and not at all superficial, read.
May 31, 2017
I loved this! A fantastic book, brilliantly and cleverly written, with such fascinating characters and a wonderful exploration of family, relationships and growing up.
March 6, 2023
Great, of course, because it's Brookner, but perhaps didn't grab me quite as much as some of her others.
September 23, 2018
Con un prólogo maravilloso y un comienzo más que prometedor antes de llegar a la mitad del libro ya estaba más que aburrida. La protagonista sí que me ha parecido interesante pero su familia no y llega un momento en que el libro se centra demasiado en ellos y he perdido el interés.
November 4, 2022
4.5
A very good novel about the pathos of making a fool of yourself.
A very good novel about the pathos of making a fool of yourself.
January 18, 2024
A tragicomedy that’s really mostly tragedy. But a self-conscious, almost tongue-in-cheek one. The protagonist Ruth’s absurd story was a fun one to read. It was self-aware in its dramatics. It was almost pulpy. Ruth is an academic, a lover of literature, and a Balzac scholar. Balzac was an author of darkly dramatic yet super entertaining novels full of moral conflict and scepticism. In this book Brookner immersed me in Ruth’s story, a story full of moral conflict and scepticism, and had me considering the awkward relationship between the things that make up the “stuff of literature”and the “stuff of life.”
Brookner has that maturity and knowing that I also experience in the voices of Elizabeth Taylor and Alice Munro – old-fashioned authors who weren’t all show and no tell, all spareness and ambiguity and suggestion. They were no Claire Keegan. They’re so satisfying to read because they do both, they’re showers and tellers simultaneously. I love them for their psycholgising, the clear experience and understanding that comes through in their sharp observations and articulate telling – their critical unsentimental eye and compassion. They broke down, neatly and clearly, and brilliantly, what goes on in the whirling dance of our relationships with one another. Thank the almighty whatever for the existence in fiction of the Keegans and the Brookners in the world, because I couldn’t do without the range.
Being a Balzac fan myself, and having read Eugénie Grandet—the Balzac novel most referenced in A Start in Life—added to my pleasure and was icing on the cake.
Brookner has that maturity and knowing that I also experience in the voices of Elizabeth Taylor and Alice Munro – old-fashioned authors who weren’t all show and no tell, all spareness and ambiguity and suggestion. They were no Claire Keegan. They’re so satisfying to read because they do both, they’re showers and tellers simultaneously. I love them for their psycholgising, the clear experience and understanding that comes through in their sharp observations and articulate telling – their critical unsentimental eye and compassion. They broke down, neatly and clearly, and brilliantly, what goes on in the whirling dance of our relationships with one another. Thank the almighty whatever for the existence in fiction of the Keegans and the Brookners in the world, because I couldn’t do without the range.
Being a Balzac fan myself, and having read Eugénie Grandet—the Balzac novel most referenced in A Start in Life—added to my pleasure and was icing on the cake.
December 5, 2022
En weer heb ik me laten vangen door de achterflap:
“Een bijzonder verfijnde, doordachte en vaak uiterst grappige tragikomedie.” (Financial Times)
Hm, zo grappig was het nu ook weer niet.
Alleen hoofdstukken 6 en 7 zijn tragikomisch, zoals Hans Bouman ook in het voorwoord schrijft.
“Een briljante openingszin betekende haar doorbraak, waarna ze vele elegante romans schreef.” (De Volkskrant)
Was haar doorbraak niet “Hotel du Lac”? Daar won zij de Booker Prize mee.
De briljante openingszin van ‘Een frisse start’ luidt als volgt:
“Doctor Weiss zag op haar veertigste in dat de literatuur haar leven had verpest.”
Ik vond Hotel du Lac zeer goed, maar nu lees ik dat al haar boeken zo ongeveer over hetzelfde gaan, dus twee soortgelijke boeken direct na mekaar lezen, was geen goed idee.
“Een bijzonder verfijnde, doordachte en vaak uiterst grappige tragikomedie.” (Financial Times)
Hm, zo grappig was het nu ook weer niet.
Alleen hoofdstukken 6 en 7 zijn tragikomisch, zoals Hans Bouman ook in het voorwoord schrijft.
“Een briljante openingszin betekende haar doorbraak, waarna ze vele elegante romans schreef.” (De Volkskrant)
Was haar doorbraak niet “Hotel du Lac”? Daar won zij de Booker Prize mee.
De briljante openingszin van ‘Een frisse start’ luidt als volgt:
“Doctor Weiss zag op haar veertigste in dat de literatuur haar leven had verpest.”
Ik vond Hotel du Lac zeer goed, maar nu lees ik dat al haar boeken zo ongeveer over hetzelfde gaan, dus twee soortgelijke boeken direct na mekaar lezen, was geen goed idee.
July 22, 2019
Un verdadero espanto. Un libro deprimente sin motivo.
July 2, 2013
A Start in Life (1981) is Anita Brookner's first published novel, and it is splendid. I expected it to be a bit rough but it displays the same smooth skill of her better-known later novels.
The protagonist is Dr Ruth Weiss, a 40-year-old professor of French literature. Scenes from her current life bracket the rest of the novel, which is the story of her youth and her struggle to escape her claustrophobic family. Her mother, a beautiful and famous actress, slowly deteriorates as the story progresses, selfishly sucking the life and all chances for independence from her daughter.
"In the country of the old and sick there are environmental hazards. Cautious days. Early nights. A silent, aging life in which the anxiety of the invalid overrides the vitality of the untouched. A wariness, in case the untoward might go undetected. Sudden gratitude that turns bitterness into self-reproach."
Ruth's father owned a small bookstore, which never made much money, and when he sold it he continued to go there and eventually engaged in a sort of platonic affair with the new owner. The woman's nephew, who helps out at the bookstore, is another self-engaged character with little patience for other people and their wants or needs. He "hated hypocrites, and did not allow for the fact that he was growing into one himself."
Ruth doesn't like him but she is thrown into his company as he and his aunt visit Ruth's ageing father.
"Eventually he asked her to marry him. In this he showed sense. It is best to marry for purely selfish reasons."
Complicating and exacerbating the problems at home, Ruth's parents hire a housekeeper who controls everyone in the household. She does little housework and their apartment slowly deteriorates into dusty disarray. Her father also is focused only on himself and he too drains the energy from Ruth, blighting her chances for independence, calling her home from Paris just as she seems about to make a satisfying life for herself.
Ruth visits France to study Balzac, following the paths of his characters around Paris and she makes a trip to three towns in which he has set his novels. She is particularly interested in Balzac's Eugenie Grandet. Ruth identifies with Eugenie, another character who became entangled by her demanding family and was unable to move away. Ruth sees her own similarity to Balzac's heroine:
"... Eugenie was an anomaly, so biddable, so inert on her bench in the garden, while her mother wasted away and her father grew more angry. Ruth could not remember why she had ever liked the novel in the first place."
The parallels between the novels are, I think, strong, and I'm about to read Balzac's novel for the light it will shed on A Start in Life.
The protagonist is Dr Ruth Weiss, a 40-year-old professor of French literature. Scenes from her current life bracket the rest of the novel, which is the story of her youth and her struggle to escape her claustrophobic family. Her mother, a beautiful and famous actress, slowly deteriorates as the story progresses, selfishly sucking the life and all chances for independence from her daughter.
"In the country of the old and sick there are environmental hazards. Cautious days. Early nights. A silent, aging life in which the anxiety of the invalid overrides the vitality of the untouched. A wariness, in case the untoward might go undetected. Sudden gratitude that turns bitterness into self-reproach."
Ruth's father owned a small bookstore, which never made much money, and when he sold it he continued to go there and eventually engaged in a sort of platonic affair with the new owner. The woman's nephew, who helps out at the bookstore, is another self-engaged character with little patience for other people and their wants or needs. He "hated hypocrites, and did not allow for the fact that he was growing into one himself."
Ruth doesn't like him but she is thrown into his company as he and his aunt visit Ruth's ageing father.
"Eventually he asked her to marry him. In this he showed sense. It is best to marry for purely selfish reasons."
Complicating and exacerbating the problems at home, Ruth's parents hire a housekeeper who controls everyone in the household. She does little housework and their apartment slowly deteriorates into dusty disarray. Her father also is focused only on himself and he too drains the energy from Ruth, blighting her chances for independence, calling her home from Paris just as she seems about to make a satisfying life for herself.
Ruth visits France to study Balzac, following the paths of his characters around Paris and she makes a trip to three towns in which he has set his novels. She is particularly interested in Balzac's Eugenie Grandet. Ruth identifies with Eugenie, another character who became entangled by her demanding family and was unable to move away. Ruth sees her own similarity to Balzac's heroine:
"... Eugenie was an anomaly, so biddable, so inert on her bench in the garden, while her mother wasted away and her father grew more angry. Ruth could not remember why she had ever liked the novel in the first place."
The parallels between the novels are, I think, strong, and I'm about to read Balzac's novel for the light it will shed on A Start in Life.
February 4, 2019
3,7 estrellas
October 27, 2019
Actual rating 2,5
Well this was kinda weird and not at all what I was hoping for, which explains my low-ish rating for a book that doesn't really have any obvious faults.
I didn't care for this tragicomic tale and was glad when I finished this slim volume.
There were some pretty nice sentences and sentiments, but all in all I'm not overwhelmed, clearly.
Also what decade is this set in?? I was utterly confused about that.
Anita Brookner, shall I give you another go, orrrr...?
Well this was kinda weird and not at all what I was hoping for, which explains my low-ish rating for a book that doesn't really have any obvious faults.
I didn't care for this tragicomic tale and was glad when I finished this slim volume.
There were some pretty nice sentences and sentiments, but all in all I'm not overwhelmed, clearly.
Also what decade is this set in?? I was utterly confused about that.
Anita Brookner, shall I give you another go, orrrr...?
January 14, 2019
Oh, how I loved it: Brookner, as always, so brave and happy to deal with passivity, banality and ambivalence in fascinating ways.
May 19, 2009
This is a very odd little novel. After finishing it I went online to
read what other people have thought about it in an effort to clarify my own thoughts. It is generally considered to be loosely autobiographical in its depiction of Ruth's parents and her childhood in general. In fact, the author described her own parents as "just as bizarre but not quite so fetching" as the parents she created for Ruth in the novel.
The protagonist, Ruth Weiss, is a very passive person who never seems to question that other people will ultimately decide the direction of her life. The few small efforts she does make to choose her own path are set aside quickly when they conflict with what other people want from her. In the end, looking back on her life at the age of forty, she decides that the "ruin" her life has become is because she expected real life to be like 19th century literature, in which virtue and self-sacrifice are always rewarded and all a woman needs to do to find love is wait patiently.
Actually, most of the characters in the book, not just Ruth, are very passive people. The home Ruth grows up in after the death of her grandmother is an untidy place full of people who are waiting for someone else to come along, take charge and make them happy. If Ruth is the only one to bend her life to accommodate others, it is because she is the only one capable of it, not because those around her are made of stronger stuff.
Although the copy on the back of the book states that in the end Ruth
discovers that "once again she must make a new start in life", I didn't see any evidence of a new start. Instead I saw a woman who, while possessing some insight into how her life had become what it is, is in the end too tired or too passive to make any real change.
read what other people have thought about it in an effort to clarify my own thoughts. It is generally considered to be loosely autobiographical in its depiction of Ruth's parents and her childhood in general. In fact, the author described her own parents as "just as bizarre but not quite so fetching" as the parents she created for Ruth in the novel.
The protagonist, Ruth Weiss, is a very passive person who never seems to question that other people will ultimately decide the direction of her life. The few small efforts she does make to choose her own path are set aside quickly when they conflict with what other people want from her. In the end, looking back on her life at the age of forty, she decides that the "ruin" her life has become is because she expected real life to be like 19th century literature, in which virtue and self-sacrifice are always rewarded and all a woman needs to do to find love is wait patiently.
Actually, most of the characters in the book, not just Ruth, are very passive people. The home Ruth grows up in after the death of her grandmother is an untidy place full of people who are waiting for someone else to come along, take charge and make them happy. If Ruth is the only one to bend her life to accommodate others, it is because she is the only one capable of it, not because those around her are made of stronger stuff.
Although the copy on the back of the book states that in the end Ruth
discovers that "once again she must make a new start in life", I didn't see any evidence of a new start. Instead I saw a woman who, while possessing some insight into how her life had become what it is, is in the end too tired or too passive to make any real change.
June 29, 2020
This was Anita Brookner's first novel. I have read most of her books. In her early writing. it became evident her prose had compassion and feeling. i had empathy for the characters, and with ease felt the harsh weather that at times that I miss residing in Florida.
if one has not read anything by her, i highly recommend you experience her prose. Sadly she passed away a few years ago.
if one has not read anything by her, i highly recommend you experience her prose. Sadly she passed away a few years ago.
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