Visitors Brookner, Anita

Towards evening the oppressive heat was tempered by a slight breeze, although this merely served to power drifts and eddies of a warmth almost tropical in its intensity. But this was England: somewhere in the atmosphere was a memory of damp. (from the first line)

The extraordinary Anita Brookner, praised by "The New York Times as "one of the finest novelists of her generation," gives us a brilliant novel about age and awakening. In "Visitors, Brookner explores what happens when a woman's quiet resignation to fate is challenged by the arrogance of youth.
Dorothea May is most at ease in the company of strangers. When her late husband's relatives prevail on her to take in a young man for the week before an unexpected family wedding, Thea's carefully constructed, solitary world is thrown into disarray. As the wedding approaches, old family secrets surface and conflicts erupt between the generations, trapping an unwilling Thea in the middle. Confronted by the company of Steve Best, a carefree young wanderer, Thea's fragile facade of peaceful acceptance is pierced, forcing her to face in a new way both her past and her future.
Exquisite writing, richly drawn characters, and penetrating prceptions about people are here combined into another superb novel by the writer about whom "The New York Times Book Review has said, "If Henry James were around, the only writer he'd be reading with complete approval would be Anita Brookner."

"From the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher:
When her late husband's sister asked her to take in a reticent young drifter who is to be best man at a granddaughter's wedding, 70-year-old recluse Dorothea May is forced to realize that old age will require a good deal more courage than she had anticipated.

Annotation:
A widow named Dorothea May, who is out of touch with life, is forced into intimacy with her relatives--particularly her untrustworthy cousins Kitty and Molly--during a family crisis. A New York Times Notable Book for 1998.

Author Bio

Anita Brookner

The only child of two Polish Jews, Anita Brookner was extremely fond of her difficult and elusive parents and still describes herself as a "grown-up orphan" and a supremely lonely person. A precocious reader, Brookner was introduced to the classics of English literature by her father, and went on to study history at the University of London. She later gained a Ph.D. in art history and lived and studied in Paris for three years. She served for many years on the faculty of the Courtauld Institute in London and has published several books on 18th- and 19th-century French art, on which she is a recognized expert. She began writing novels during her summer vacations (as she says, to keep from feeling sorry for herself because she had nothing to do) and eventually gave up her career as an art historian to be a full-time novelist. Her books have won many honors, including the Booker Prize.

Praise

Times Literary Supplement
"[I]n her latest novel as in her others, she uncovers layers of self-deceptions in marriage, sibling relationships, communication between the old and the young. Reading it is a salutary experience, but not a stimulating one." - Sarah A. Smith 05/30/1997

Spectator
"All this is described in Anita Brookner's gently aphoristic prose. It is told with compassion and wit: a civilised description of a civilised predicament....Mrs. May is very well done..." - Max Egremont 06/07/1997

Literary Review
"The world of Dorothea May is archetypal Anita Brookner territory, and from the first page of this novel it is plain that she is taking us on a further exploration of a corner of the emotional map that she has made peculiarly her own....In this novel as in others, Brookner is better at mood and atmosphere than she is at narrative or plot; the tension in the book is all internal." - Anne Chisholm July 1997

Kirkus Reviews
"In another quietly brilliant gem, the incomparably subtle Brookner puts soft, revealing touches on the face of loneliness as only the elderly know it....Signaling profound upheaval with the slightest turn of phrase and imparting wisdom through the most trivial detail, Brookner continues her long, nuanced look at human isolation." 12/01/1997

Product Attributes

Book Format:		Paperback
Number of Pages:		0256
Publisher:		Vintage Books USA

BloomReach Content

Visitors (Paperback)

Product Details:

Praise

Rakuten