- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books; Large Print edition edition (May 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1850894043
- ISBN-13: 978-1850894049
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.6 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,034,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Frances Hinton is shy and clever. By day she works in a medical library and every evening she goes back to the solitude of her London flat to write fiction. When she is adopted by Nick and his wife, she is ripe to begin her sentimental education. By the author of "Brief Lives" and "Hotel du Lac".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The novel tells in dramatic detail how Nick and Alix Fraser casually break the heart of Frances Hinton, a well-behaved and observant young woman who works in the reference library of a medical research laboratory dedicated to the study of problems of human behaviour and who longs, in her subdued way, for love. She is an orderly young woman and Spartan in her habits. If she suffers loneliness it is because she has settled for the harsh habit of dealing with all matters by herself.
And soon Frances is disappointed in love. "I knew about love and its traps ... I never speak of it" and turns to writing as a form of therapy and escape, as a way to reorder her world. She writes when she feels swamped in her solitude and hidden by it, physically obscured by it and rendered invisible. Writing is her way of piping up, of reminding people that she is here. We may well guess how much of her own personality the author put in her heroine's character.
An altogether convincing portrait of failed love and solitude, reminiscent of so many of Anita Brookner's protagonists.
And soon Frances is disappointed in love. "I knew about love and its traps ... I never speak of it" and turns to writing as a form of therapy and escape, as a way to reorder her world. She writes when she feels swamped in her solitude and hidden by it, physically obscured by it and rendered invisible. Writing is her way of piping up, of reminding people that she is here. We may well guess how much of her own personality the author put in her heroine's character.
An altogether convincing portrait of failed love and solitude, reminiscent of so many of Anita Brookner's protagonists.
Format:Paperback
Well, I admit that after a great first paragraph, with the brilliant first sentence `once a thing is known, it can never be unknown', I was actually seriously worried that I was going to loathe `Look At Me' from its first three or so pages. The term wading through treacle springs to mind, endless paragraphs on depression, melancholy, death and lunacy. It wasn't looking good. Thank heavens then that I decided I would give it a first chapter then, because in a single page I was rewarded by some of the types of prose and characters that I have experienced and loved in Brookner's work before.
So what is the subject of `Look At Me'? It is interesting that the initial part of the book that bored me with the descriptions of depression and melancholy are in a way what this book is about. In fact I think the best way to describe, our narrator, Frances Hinton's life is a solitary one, and one that Brookner can do so well. Frances admits that her life is one lived very much alone, where she lives is `for old people', and really for the main the most interaction she has is with her colleagues and that's how she befriends Nick and his beautiful wife Alix and then becomes adopted as their `pet project'.
That's all I am going to give you in terms of plot because really with a slim volume of 192 pages, if I said too much I would give everything away and you wouldn't then be put through the emotional (both high and low) wringer that Brookner has in store for you and that would very much be to the detriment of `Look At Me'. It's a book you need to read in order to actually experience it.
I don't know if that's enough to satisfy you and ponder giving it a read but I do advise that you do. Brookner is on fine form (well after the initial hurdle) in this book and everything after the awkward start makes up for it without question. Frances is one of Brookner's wonderful heroines who starts out a little acidic and brittle and yet slowly wins you over. It's also interesting to watch a character like that unfold, and possibly even unravel. I don't know why but I think the fact that she is writer made me like Frances all the more. I did wonder if there was an autobiographical note to this book, maybe that's just clutching at straws though. I also loved Nancy, Francis' maid, who it seems loved Francis' mother, who hired her, and far more than Francis did and won't let her forget it. The background characters are always vivid and fully formed another thing I love about Brookner.
I know it's not the longest review, but its not the longest of books - which makes it even more of an ideal read for giving Brookner a try if you haven't already, or to take a tentative step. I am trying to think of the last time I started a book thinking `oh I don't want to read this' and ending up thinking `oh I don't want this to end'. That is exactly the effect that `Look At Me' had on this reader. It is such a shame it is out of print.
So what is the subject of `Look At Me'? It is interesting that the initial part of the book that bored me with the descriptions of depression and melancholy are in a way what this book is about. In fact I think the best way to describe, our narrator, Frances Hinton's life is a solitary one, and one that Brookner can do so well. Frances admits that her life is one lived very much alone, where she lives is `for old people', and really for the main the most interaction she has is with her colleagues and that's how she befriends Nick and his beautiful wife Alix and then becomes adopted as their `pet project'.
That's all I am going to give you in terms of plot because really with a slim volume of 192 pages, if I said too much I would give everything away and you wouldn't then be put through the emotional (both high and low) wringer that Brookner has in store for you and that would very much be to the detriment of `Look At Me'. It's a book you need to read in order to actually experience it.
I don't know if that's enough to satisfy you and ponder giving it a read but I do advise that you do. Brookner is on fine form (well after the initial hurdle) in this book and everything after the awkward start makes up for it without question. Frances is one of Brookner's wonderful heroines who starts out a little acidic and brittle and yet slowly wins you over. It's also interesting to watch a character like that unfold, and possibly even unravel. I don't know why but I think the fact that she is writer made me like Frances all the more. I did wonder if there was an autobiographical note to this book, maybe that's just clutching at straws though. I also loved Nancy, Francis' maid, who it seems loved Francis' mother, who hired her, and far more than Francis did and won't let her forget it. The background characters are always vivid and fully formed another thing I love about Brookner.
I know it's not the longest review, but its not the longest of books - which makes it even more of an ideal read for giving Brookner a try if you haven't already, or to take a tentative step. I am trying to think of the last time I started a book thinking `oh I don't want to read this' and ending up thinking `oh I don't want this to end'. That is exactly the effect that `Look At Me' had on this reader. It is such a shame it is out of print.
Format:Paperback
Anita Brookner's beautifully written short novel about a shy intelligent woman stayed with me long after I'd finished reading. It covers a time in the life of reference librarian Frances Hinton when she enters a different social circle . Written in the first person I found I quickly empathised with Frances and read helplessly on as she falls for the shallowness of the exciting new crowd. I won't give any more away as the poignancy of this novel comes from travelling with Frances through her experience.
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