The Debut (Vintage Contemporaries)

I first came by Anita Brookner via her Booker Prize winning novel, Hotel Du Lac ; purchased in my favorite bookstore in Paris, which is the setting for part of this novel. I'm sure some might debate the technical merits of this one against her award winner, but I found them both quite enjoyable and insightful; the differentiation I'll leave to the literary specialists. Speaking of which, the protagonist, Dr Ruth Weiss, is a Professor and literary specialist on Honoré de Balzac. The first chapter depicts her in that mid-life role, but the vast majority of the book concerns how she assumed that role, her "debut" into the adult world, as she managed to shake off the influences of a highly dysfunctional family situation, and found solace in literature. Brookner introduces one of the central themes early, in the form of non-translated French, a quote from Balzac's " Eugenie Grandet ." Like many other English writers of a certain class, she assumes that her readers understand the language of the diplomatic world (well, at least of the 18th Century). And if you'll excuse my French, as it were, she states the fear of many a woman who worries that her wit, intelligence and character just might not be enough for him; that the deciding factor will be her physical beauty. Ruth's mother, Helen, is an actress passed her prime, endlessly reminiscing of her triumphs, on stage, and sometimes in bed, and now enveloped in hypochondria. Her father, George, used to own and run a bookstore, but has now taken to some modest philandering, rationalized since it is not fully consummated. There is the live-in "housekeeper" of sorts, Mrs. Cutler, who provides a useful foil. Ruth does escape to Paris, to continue her work on Balzac, and is taken advantage of by various so-called friends. Still, she struggles, maintains her dignity, and comes of age, but there is the constant vortex of doom, her family situation, and their needs, that pull her back to England. Brookner delightfully re-packages an aphorism by Oscar Wilde: "Work, she thought, is a paradox; it is the sort of thing people do out of sheer inability to do anything else. Work is the chosen avocation of people who have no other calls on their time." The author's core strengths (as they say in business) are observations on the male-female relationships. Consider: "She studied the couple closely, as if they were an unknown species. They were, in fact, an unknown species. They were happy." Or, "Hugh also took Ruth back to her room one day and started to make love to her; she was so amazed that she forgot all the routine objections." Throughout the novel, Ruth receives many an unsolicited "improvement" comment from the more worldly-wise Anthea. Finally, Ruth asks her, concerning those aforementioned relationships: "Is it all a game, then?" Anthea looked sadly back. "Only if you win," was her reply. "If you lose, it's far more serious." Finally, in terms of quotes, Brookner might be considered a traitor, at least to her gender, for this one: "Some women take advantage. Once they're married, and they've got a good husband, they think they can do what they like. And if they take him for granted"- she paused significantly-"they just don't bother any more." Overall, Brookner weaves an excellent story, erudite, well-placed, and informed on the human condition. The author's style is a rare mixture of understated British humor surrounding a tale that goes deep into the heart of sadness. A marvelous 5-star read that has pushed me to read Eugénie Grandet, if not even more of Balzac.

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 glamorous 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.

More of the same of Anita Brookner -- if you like her other books you will like this. "The Debut" does not pick up the protagonist Ruth's story at age 40. It is a flashback, about Ruth's "debut," her effort at trying to break away from her parents. The novel details her upbringing to age 23. Or rather, she describes vignettes from and feelings about her upbringing, which seem like a load of cognitive dissonance to this reader. She describes her parents with a pitiless eye for detail, but, are we are supposed to believe in her stated feeling for them? How will this all develop? Then both her parents start to age, badly. I guess they had Ruth late, because she is only 23, and her father is in his sixties. Her mother is "barely sixty." Ruth leaves them to try living in Paris and has a half-baked affair with someone unsuitable. This dissonance is the core of what confuses me about Brookner novels -- the Brookner voice. Or maybe it is what makes me keep turning the pages. I want the main character's attitude, motivations, explained. Brookner often doesn't do that. I never rooted for the main character because she is so annoying. But the book is well-written and had some witty observations mixed in with the general airlessness of the narrator's perceptions.

that rarest of rare things is a book worth reading again Brookner wrote 24 ! nobodys ever done that The Debut was her first as she wrote more, she got even better but as she got better, something got lost a book can be good...even very good...and yet ...well...a bit boring Brookner always was a bit of a writer's writer she was never mass market but her first - The Debut - is mass market a comic masterpiece for the masses...its got pace, its got plot , its got entertaining and amusing characters and its got some really funny one liners like everything else she wrote, The Debut is for women, about women, and about getting a man and what happens ( to you ) if you don't "Now, for God's sake , Ruth, don't make a mess of this. Don't give in too easily. String him along. Take another lover. Keep him guessing. Break the odd appointment. How on earth do you think I got Brian? ". Ruth looked sadly at her friend. "Is it all a game then ?" she asked. Her friend looked sadly back. " Only if you win" was her reply. "if you lose, it's far more serious" a bit dated or a biological imperative ? before feminism, this was how all women thought and in those parts of the world untouched by feminism it's still how they think.

Just had 'The Debut' delivered (to France at extra postage) and find the content is exactly the same as 'A start in Life', which already bought from Amazon and cheaper! Different publisher, but how could same stories be sold with different titles?!