Undue Influence Paperback – 22 October 2016

The heroine of Anita Brookner's nineteenth novel 'Undue Influence' is twenty-nine-year-old Claire Pitt, a self-contained and seemingly unassuming young woman, who enjoys fantasizing about the lives of others and who works in a second-hand bookshop owned by two very elderly spinster sisters.  She lives alone in the large flat that has been left to her by her recently deceased mother and, in her spare time, she takes long, solitary walks through the streets of London. On Saturdays she meets up with her female friend 'Wiggy' for conversation and a quiet supper at a local restaurant; her sexual encounters, such as they are, take place on holidays where she briefly couples up with anonymous men, however that 'special someone' has not yet materialised and Claire is accepting of this state of affairs  - that is until Martin Gibson, a middle-aged and slightly careworn, but attractive academic, finds his way into the bookshop. Martin, however, is married and has a beautiful but manipulative invalid wife, whose care is divided between the seemingly devoted Martin and a very capable young nurse - yet this situation does not discourage Claire from manoeuvring her way into Martin's company. When Martin's wife dies soon afterwards, Claire, seeing her opportunity, manages to insinuate herself into Martin's life in a way that the reader is soon able to intuit does not bode well for Claire....  This is classic Brookner territory: the financially secure, solitary and seemingly unassuming heroine; the quiet and undemanding job; the older characters in the story living lives of increasing decrepitude; the attractive, but duplicitous male; the oppressive feeling of loneliness; the quiet tragedy of a life not lived to the full - and, of course, the exquisite writing. Although Claire has her good points, as a heroine she is not, I have to say, an entirely likeable character - she is one of those individuals who appear to be quite passive on the surface but who, beneath their seemingly accommodating exterior, are quite determined to inveigle their way into situations that often end with them feeling de trop and disillusioned. Anita Brookner always writes with unsparing and incisive honesty and her acute dissection of her characters' inner lives can, at times, make her novels a rather sombre reading experience; however, the sheer beauty of her prose and the perspicacity of her writing always pulls me into her stories and although I realize that Ms Brookner's writing style is not necessarily to everyone's taste and some readers may find her themes rather sobering, this perceptive, psychologically astute and exquisitely written story kept me involved from the first page to the last.4 Stars.

Story and reader excellent - however the tape was NOT in good condition and several tapes were of very poor quality due to background noise which made it difficult to listen to. Setting aside the poor quality of the tapes the story and reader provided the suspense which compelled the listener to look forward to the next chapter.

I have loved reading nearly all of her books. She is a master of language and description, usually of lonely people who have inner lives and thoughts that she can convey to the reader masterfully. The main character in this particular book however was just irritating and feeble but the ending was good.