The Bay of Angels

Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet tale
Review: Anita Brookner is a true artist in the creation of fully developed characters that the reader comes to love. This feat was accomplished yet again in this tender novel. It is a tale dripping with loneliness and yet there is also a feeling of redemption in being able to survive the depths of loneliness that will gladden the heart of the emphatic reader.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Beef
Review: Anita Brookner writes lovely prose; unfortunately she seems, at least in this novel, to have nothing to say. The characters are not involving, the story is virtually non-existent. Unless you feel like being mesmerized by the rhythm of beautiful prose, I'd give this one a miss. Even the writing can be a bit much at times; I could not help but be taken aback that any writer could find a use for the word "nugatory" twice within a few pages. All style; no substance.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Beef
Review: Anita Brookner writes lovely prose; unfortunately she seems, at least in this novel, to have nothing to say. The characters are not involving, the story is virtually non-existent. Unless you feel like being mesmerized by the rhythm of beautiful prose, I'd give this one a miss. Even the writing can be a bit much at times; I could not help but be taken aback that any writer could find a use for the word "nugatory" twice within a few pages. All style; no substance.

Rating:
Summary: "...ANGELS" DAZZLES!
Review: ANITA BROOKNER's "BAY OF ANGELS" returns the beloved Booker Prize winning author to the top of her form after a slightly-less-excellent trio of lessor novels. Brookner's specialty is her insight into the lives of non-glamorous people, and how well she gets inside their head and lets the thoughts spill out in page-after-page of wonderous prose. A suspense-of-a-different-kind leads a young woman through the complexities of dealing with her mother's second marriage and move to the south of France, her stepfather's sudden death, and the effect this has on her mother... as well as the young woman's career, romantic life, and everyday living. Choose this book and forget about serial killers, shallow romance, secret agents, and all the other drivel which clutters the best seller lists. This one is AAAA quality about real people you can get into.

Rating:
Summary: Another terrific study of women
Review: Brookner is known for her deep burrows into the minds of serious British women. Not much happens in any of her books, but the reader does learn of the motivation of each of her characters and their relationships. This is a slow read, but rich in insight. Zoe is finishing high school when this book begins, and lives alone with her widowed mother. The mother is the most passive character I've ever encountered, but is introduced, and subsequently is married to (notice the passive voice), a man who makes her life, and Zoe's, quite comfortable. Of course, he dies. A mere 200 pages, this book will haunt me for a while, because I have come to know Zoe and her mother so well.

Rating:
Summary: For experienced Brookner readersonly
Review: First off, I love Anita Brookner and have read everything I know of that she has written. She writes, in my opinion, the most elegant prose and has a unique gift for penetrating layers and sublayers of her characters--many of whom are completely neurotic so I guess this could be annoying for some readers. I like it. There are threads in the books-the mother/daughter thread, for one that is very interesting. There is also the woman-taken-advantage-of -usually temporarily-by some cad. And every book has a setting that is so atmospheric that I delight in the long walks, the lonely evenings, the manners of her heroines. Most people I know who read for pleasure prefer simple zip-through novels and read very little non-fiction. I read very little fiction so I am picky and particular. Barbara Pym's "Excellent Women" and "Quartet in Autumn" are two novels I loved. I can't stand the Jan Karon or the Anita Shreve "sets"-so if you want that type of reading, forget Brookner. Evan Connell's old "Mr and Mrs. Bridge" books have a similar penetrating character analysis-or course without the elegance or atmosphere.
Having said all this, "BAy of Angels" is really not terrific Brookner. The main character Zoe is not quite right, so I recommend the earlier titles. If you like them, proceed. She is not for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Well...
Review: I am perhaps one of the most rabid of the countless readers who eagerly await each year's new Anita Brookner novel, but, I have to admit, I was fairly disappointed in this one. I can't help feeling I must have missed something, because I am stunned by how utterly uninvolving the characters and the plot were to me. Brookner's prose, as always, is breathtaking, so I would recommend this to any fan, with the caveat: "Wait for the paperback". New Brookner readers would do better to start with Look at Me and Hotel du Lac or my more recent favorites, Falling Slowly and Undue Influence

Rating:
Summary: if you are a courages woman it is for you
Review: I don't think we can find more sensitive and more accurate writer than Anita Brookner in describing and touching the "alive meat" of the loneliness of a woman - without self pity and no melodramatic epizodes - just the simple and the very true facts.
I have read more than 10 books by Anita Brookner, and each one of them was and still a great experience and an enrichment for the soul and the mind!.

Rating:
Summary: not her best
Review: I used to be a huge fan of Brookner. In fact I have read every book but one, her very latest. I don't know if I will read it. Perhaps I am outgrowing her, but "Bay of Angels" was not only one of the worst Brookner I have read, but one of the worst books I have read. It was hard work, with no reward, and I never believed in the characters. If you want to read Brookner at her best, try "Dolly" or "Look at Me" or "A Closed Eye".

Rating:
Summary: For experienced Brookner readersonly
Review: I've been listening to the book on tape, and am giving up. The characters are totally self-absorbed, shallow and uninteresting. A story may develop as time goes on, and Zoe may find some gumption and energy by the end of the book, but Brookner takes too many pages for me to persevere. Sorry.