A Private View (Isis Series)

Rating:
Summary: George's Golden Years
Review: Anita Brookner knows how to focus her readers' attention powerfully on the principal characters of her books. In this regard her skills are akin to those of an immense magnifying glass which condense the sun's wide rays into a small hot center of light: after a few chapters, her characters burst into flame under the steady gaze of the reader's scrutiny. George Bland of "A Private View" is one of those. Though he appears to live a dull and uninteresting life, the author's examination of why he does so makes for heartily provocative perusal. This novel is written in the grand tradition of other books which explore the carnival folly of desperate old age willing to immolate itself on the indifferent bonfires of youth. One is reminded of Thomas Mann's "The Death in Venice," for example. Some of the usual Brookner appetizers and entrees are on offer here: the intense internal monologue; the snake oil placebo of tea for what ails; the visits to the shops when boredom constricts; the useless days of people who have nothing to do and no one to do it with. After cavorting for awhile with George Bland and other Brookner pals, one may begin to think of England as a place inhabited solely by elderly people crushed under the weight of gargantuan checkbooks and pointless days. But it is the author's vivisectional analysis of what makes such people tick, persued with rather gleeful abandon, that makes for such riveting reading. This reviewer's advice: spend some time with George Bland and his funky fascination, Katy Gibb. One or the other of them may leave you reaching for the bicarbonate of soda, but their unsettling company is absolutely worth the experience.