A Start in Life
Ratings1
Average rating3
Anita Brookner's first novel, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.' Ruth Weiss, an academic, is beautiful, intelligent and lonely. Studying the heroines of Balzac in order to discover where her own childhood and adult life has gone awry, she seeks not salvation but enlightenment. Yet in revisiting her London upbringing, her friendships and doomed Parisian love affairs, she wonders if perhaps there might not be a chance for a new start in life . . .
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
"At forty, Dr [x] knew her life had been ruined by literature".
Compact and well-written enough to make up for the bleakness.
Brookner is good but I can never quite find her to be great. I keep waiting for one her books to really grab me. When I got to the end of this one, I couldn't understand why it had started the way it did, with “Dr. Weiss, at forty ....” I'm sure it would've made more sense if I'd read EugМ©nie Grandet or at least been more familiar with Balzac than I am (which is not at all). One of the things I liked most about this book was the emphasis on the daily need for food: the weight of being the person responsible for buying groceries and preparing food, the neediness of those who can't cook for themselves, the importance of food in relationships (seeking out an extramarital relationship purely for the comfort of feeding someone else or of being well fed). The eternal slog of having to keep oneself fueled! That was the main thing I got out of this book and somehow that doesn't seem right.
