John Williams of the New York Times checks out Anita Brookner’s “Look at Me” in NY1’s The Book Reader.
The award-winning British author Anita Brookner died in March at 87. Brookner was an accomplished art historian when she turned to writing novels in her 50s. She ended up writing two dozen works of fiction. I recently read two of her earliest books, and I am thrilled that there are so many left for me to get to.
It will be hard for any of them to top “Look at Me.” In this novel, a lonely art historian named Frances works at a library and ends up befriending a glamorous married couple. She falls in love with a friend of theirs, unsure if he loves her back. That’s pretty much all there is, in terms of plot. But it’s impossible to describe how deeply Brookner gets into her character’s mind. Frances is an aspiring writer herself, and her observations about her friends and herself are mercilessly insightful.
Mary Cantwell reviewed “Look at Me” in the New York Times Book Review in 1983. She said that it was written in “exceptionally elegant prose.” That is strong praise that still feels like an understatement. There are memorable sentences and deep feeling on every page of “Look at Me.”