Fraud

A wonder of poetic prose and gentle thought. Anita Brookner takes aim at frauds and those who pretend. One should always be themselves for everyone else is already taken! Anna lives alone, used to take care of her mother, and she is also used to being meek and subjective. She is pure, in a literal sense and she feels restless. Aunt Vera, who is not really Anna's aunt is patient with her, but finds her odd, for she is not married and she is so tiresome. Mr. Halliday is the doctor who filters through the pages, sometimes reminiscing and at others, he is checking-up on some patient, one or the other. The reader gets the background through short passages put sparingly, but that is not to say that one does not understand them. They are moments when the I felt happy and joyous at the simple life and daily routine whith which these characters live. Albeit, the story is slow, it is interesting to try to figure out the eventual ending, which is very rueful and gives a feeling of waywardness. Very abrupt, but if the story were to continue, well, it might have been just too boring and not that excitable mocking tone that kept you reading. Superbly and avidly written with a cautious mind, a hand with a firm grasp on the pen.

Anita Brookner often writes of the overlooked middle aged "spinster", as she does in this perfectly realized story, one of her best. The heroine, Anna Durrant, of stiff upper lip and anorectic frame, has been passed over by the man who could have rescued her from social isolation. A doctor, he has instead married Vicky, a flashy, sexy emptyhead he has nothing in common with, and who treats Anna with barely concealed contempt. A fairly constant Brookner theme, this, the quiet but intelligent and sensitive woman, sexually outmaneuvered by a conniving rival, and the man who, given the freedom to choose, will unwisely choose the conniver. Although Miss Brookner carefully guards her privacy, her novels speak for themselves. Anna Durrant is not quite a typical Brooknerian intellectual, but her successful rival is the archetypal Brookner villainness. As in Hotel du Lac and Look at Me, the ruthless seductress succeeds where the virtuous woman fails. I have read almost all Miss Brookner's novels, and there is a consistent femaleness in the sensibility as she casts a gimlet eye on women and their designs. I would surely hate to be pinned beneath her pitiless gaze! This is yet another acid pen portrait, and Miss Brookner is master of her material.

A thought-provoking read. Don't want to give away the plot, but well worth the time. Graceful writing, good plot line, interesting characters.

Well written, but rather sad characters. Although I finished reading it was a slow read and rather as depressing as the characters themselves.

Good character studies but no action

I have read somewhere that Anita Brookner was a somewhat overlooked master stylist and so I decided to read one of the novels. Fraud was written in 1992 and it is ostensibly about Anna Durant, a mature woman, single, and now living alone, as her mother whom she cared for throughout adult life had died. She goes missing, but is not missed for weeks. She has few friends and she appears to have just disappeared.It sounds like a mystery, but it is really a story about choices and opportunities taken and not taken. Brookner writes clean clear prose in a style I’m not used – she seamlessly floats from one characters’ point of view to another.The story is all told in flashback before Anna disappears. There is some great understated humor. In one scene Anna is invited to dinner by the wife of the man she should have married. She spend three pages fulminating on what she wants to say to this woman and then responds, “I’d be delighted.”The New York Times tagline was “An immensely satisfying novel with unsettling insights.” I agree.

I fully understand that Brookner is an acquired taste. I also know that she is "thin gruel" for most readers. And by this I am not saying that liking her is a way of making known one's superior taste or sophistication. No - it is just that she is a very particular kind of writer who will only appeal to readers who are taken with her microscopic form of examination and illumination. Slow. A bit repetitive. Full of description and introspection. Virtually no action.That said I think that Fraud is among her best. It feels very autobiographical. And the empowering of the main character at the novel's end appears to be a statement of purpose and independence from the author herself. "This is who I am and I am going to stop apologizing for it and make the most of it." A bit forced perhaps. Unlikely to take hold perhaps. But authentic.There is also a lot of truth here. In her own few interviews Brookner says that she is very lonely, has led a lonely life. And that she knows it is not seemly to talk about it. Well, she explores it fully in her painful fictions. "It doesn't always rhyme in the end," sings American songwriter Guy Clark. It surely doesn't in Brookner's novels. Even her most ardent admirers would hardly say that her books "sing." No, they putter along as do the lives of her characters always hoping that they will somehow wake up to a brighter day even if at some deep part of themselves they realize how unlikley bright sunshine is in gloomy old England as described in the very gloomy but amazingly exact fictions of Ms. Brookner.

I am so glad that this was my first encounter with this author. This book and the construction of it kept me intrigued throughout. I also had to keep looking up words to make sure I understood this very well written book. I thought the end was a little abrupt, but ultimately it made me move on to another of her books. Recommended.

Anita Brookner really understands women. The book is about Anna a middle aged woman aged 50 who has devoted her life to looking after her mother. She is very altruistic and keeps her emotions really tight. She is helpful to 80 year old Mrs Marsh who is happy to take advantage of her. The story is mainly character driven. It is well written so you want to know what will happen to Anna. She thought she could find love with an attractive GP who has cared for her mother.Sadly he marries another and lives in a unhappy marriage. Her description of Mrs Marsh's acceptance of ageing is really perceptive. I enjoyed reading the book which is not long. I think it would appeal to women from middle to old age.

I chose this book after reading an obituary of Anita Brookner which suggested that 'Hotel du Lac', the only one of hers which I had ever read, was not her best, and that there were others which were worth reading.I have read this in two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the characterisation of the small group of protagonists to be very well done, in the main. The description of the constraints imposed by relationships and the roles created by them is excellent. The ways in which people allow themselves to be restricted by the expectations of others comes across with poignancy.Mrs Marsh was my favourite, as a no-nonsense old woman whose feelings and attitudes are well explored.I intend to read more Anita Brookner very soon.

Loved this book, but then i am working through all anita brookners work. The women seem weak and show little to offer in her books but that maybe anita brookner writes about women just after the war and always seem to put themselves last. It was the times.

Beautifully observed, charmingly written. Perhaps not as satisfying as “Hotel du Lac,” but we’ll deserving the four stars I’ve given it

A xmas present.. the book looks good..