Look at Me

On one level, LOOK AT ME is a typical Anita Brookner novel about a single, intelligent, lonely English woman. In this case, her name is Frances Hinton. She works in the reference library of a medical research institute in London. Her mother died about two years ago (leaving her an orphan) and she shares her parents' old flat with Nancy, an elderly spinster who had been her parents' maid and cook. Frances leads an extremely ordered and proper and self-effacing existence, and a dull one. She wants some excitement and, ideally, requited love. And, more than anything perhaps, she wants to be able to assert herself and say "I hurt" or "I hate" or I want", or, more generally, "Look at me."Frances Hinton tries to stave off loneliness and despair by writing short stories and novels in the evenings and on weekends and holidays. That suggests that she is an alter ego of Anita Brookner (trained as an art historian, a writer on the side, and never married).If you have not heretofore read anything by Anita Brookner, you might find LOOK AT ME more captivating than I did. It is a finely crafted short novel (less than 200 pages). But there is virtually no action; it is a novel of interiority, featuring a phenomenally introverted protagonist. If you are a confident, decisive person, you may well find Frances Hinton intolerably dithering. LOOK AT ME is my fourth Brookner novel, and Frances Hinton is the most extreme - the most pathetic, if you will - of the intelligent, lonely Brooknerian females I have encountered.What partially redeems LOOK AT ME, and distinguishes it somewhat from other Brookner novels, is the contrast it draws between Frances Hinton, on the outside looking in, and those on the inside, those who are cocksure of themselves, those who say "Look at me" in everything they do. To the extent that there is a narrative arc to the novel, it traces Frances's friendship with Nick and Alix Fraser, a golden couple of bonhomie, badinage, and blazonry. At first, Frances is starstruck and envious and then she compromises herself to become a constant companion, audience, and foil of the Frasers. But what fuels the Frasers' easygoing and glamorous "Look at me" existence is a base self-centeredness, and Frances ends up being hurt and spurned. Life on the outside might be lonely, but it is not shallow and it is not cruel. Oddly, though, while this lesson is manifest to the reader, it is unclear whether Frances herself recognizes it at novel's end.

From the very start of the novel, I felt that I was in the hands of an expert. It is difficult to write so engagingly about a quiet, shy protagonist but the author did it well. The author captured the loneliness of the protagonist beautifully and-most of the time-demonstrated a mastery at depicting her complicated emotions. At some points, though, the thought patterns of the protagonist didn’t seem consistent with her overall personality and at times, the evolutions of her emotions wasn’t clear.

This book does not have much of a plot, but that is not the point of it. Look at Me delves into the character's inner most thoughts as she navigates her relationships. The realism, complexity and humanity of this novel made it a page turner for me.

I mean that quite literally, give this book a chance. At first glance, and quite frankly through the first chapter, the book comes across as pretentious and boring. However, once you are pulled into the story, you realize that it is remarkably honest and anything but pretentious. It's exploration of loneliness and isolation seems even more apt in our modern digitally connected world.

Haunting, coming of age story that rides like a runaway train to a conclusion that could be bleak or triumphant depending on your outlook. I suspect this was more than a little biographical. A quick read but well worth it. Makes me more of a new Bookner fan. Thank you Richard Russo for helping me find my way to her!

Francis or Fanny, the protagonist in 'Look at Me' reminds me of Emily Dickinson's poem which goes something like 'I'm nobody. Who are you? Are you nobody too?' Fanny walks a lot and talks to herself an awful lot. The descriptions of the London setting were good though. Just when you think Fanny is going to have some fun in her life, the book ends and you can only hope she and the reader find joy after it ends.

First time reader of Anita Brookner. Exceptional character study of protagonist. I certainly want to read more of her writing.

Anita is a very skilled writer who knows how to make you feel as though you're invisibly present in the story. However, she got a bit too wordy in this one.

This is a beautifully written, poignant, but quite depressing read. Frances Hinton - who dislikes being called Fanny and is, consequently referred to as such by almost everyone - seems to have a fairly charmed life. She has inherited a large apartment, as well as a family servant to care for her, and has an undemanding job at a medical library. She works with Olivia Benedict, who suffered a physical accident and wears a neck brace, but her family are loving and welcome Frances with open arms. She lives life quietly, with no financial worries, but most of her acquaintances are those from her, now dead, parents. Every month, she visits Miss Morpeth, who retired from the library some time ago and these awkward encounters seem to have been awarded to Frances because of her polite, unassuming and kindly manner.Of course, though, financial comfort and security are not everything, and Frances is lonely and feels overwhelmed by the past of her parents. Even now they are gone, she is unable to emerge from their shadow and find her own path. Then, into her life steps Nick Fraser and his beautiful, malicious wife, Alix. Nick is one of those people who push into the world, assured by his attractive face and extrovert nature, that they will be welcome. When he visits the library, he creates a fuss and a mess and the rooms feel silent when he has left. Olivia views the pair with some dislike, but Frances cannot resist it when she finds herself welcomed into the light, and noise, of their social circle. However, it becomes clear that a glimpse of another life shows the contrast strongly and Frances has to consider what she will do to belong...

Frances Hinton - who, she tells us, does not like to be called Fanny - is a quiet and unassuming young woman who works in a medical library dedicated to the study of problems of human behaviour. In charge of pictorial material, Frances works with her friend, Olivia, sending off for photographs to museums and galleries - work, she tells the reader, which is extremely interesting, in a hopeless sort of way. Part of Frances's job entails her looking after visitors who come to the library to consult the archives - two of whom are Mrs Halloran: "a wild-looking lady with a misleading air of authority who claims to be in touch with the other side" and Dr Simek, an extremely reticent Czech (or perhaps, Pole) who is working on the treatment of melancholia - both of whom visit the library every day - largely, Frances suspects, because they are lonely and because the library is so well heated. Into the library one day arrives Dr Nick Fraser with his striking wife, Alix, who seems to take a liking to Frances and invites her to supper. Frances, whose parents are no longer alive, leads a financially comfortable, but rather solitary life and is delighted to be taken up by the Frasers, whose slightly bohemian lifestyle is fascinating to the inexperienced young woman. And when Nick's colleague, the distinguished James Anstey, is introduced to Frances and appears to show an interest her, she begins to feel that a new and more exciting life might just be within her reach. However, her tentative plans for the future look as if they are in jeopardy when the sparkling but self-centred Alix draws James ever more closely into her orbit, and suddenly Frances finds herself quite out of her depth, both socially and romantically.First published in 1983, Anita Brookner's 'Look at Me' is an exquisitely written and very civilized story of a woman whose life doesn't turn out quite the way she had hoped it would. I have mentioned before in reviews of mine for Anita Brookner's novels that her stories often tread a similar path - the financially secure, solitary and seemingly unassuming heroine; the quiet and undemanding job; the attractive, but duplicitous male; the oppressive feeling of loneliness; the quiet tragedy of a life not lived to the full - and, in consequence, her novels are often rather sobering reading experiences, especially as she always writes about the human condition with such unsparing and incisive honesty. And it is not only the main characters' lives which come under close scrutiny from Ms Brookner's sharp eye - the lonely and unfulfilled lives of library visitors Mrs Halloran and Dr Simek are succinctly but acutely portrayed also. That said, the sheer beauty of the author's prose and her perceptive analyses of her characters' inner lives, always draw me into her stories and this book, like the others I have read from Ms Brookner, kept me entertained and totally involved from start to finish.4 Stars.

It seems odd to say it about a book that is so very bleak and offers so little hope, but I loved this book, although I found it a difficult read. Difficult, because Brookner portrays loneliness without any soft edges. It is black, but all too believable. I cried more than once, and very rarely does a book bring me to tears. Not for the fainthearted, but beautifully written, haunting and memorable.

This is a typical Brookner - a woman unable to really connect withering in a place that is either Maida Vale or Kings Road. That said, it was a short enjoyable read where you felt her cringing behaviour and lack of insight.

OK not great for me but can understand the appeal for others.