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A Closed Eye
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
8 posts | 4 read | 9 to read
In A Closed Eye, Anita Brookner explores, with compassionate insight and stylistic brilliance, the self-inflicted paradoxes in the life of Harriet Lytton, a woman whose powers of submissiveness and self-denial are suddenly tested by the dizzying prospect of sexual awakening. In Harriers gallant struggle with the single great temptation that comes her way, Brookner creates a hauntingly flawed heroine and a study in the evasions and disappointments that make up all our lives.
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Graywacke
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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Pickpick

Wellington Square 👆

1st time reading Brookner. So clean and polished and easy and perfect.

Harriet Lytton has an imperfect, or worse, marriage to an older man, and pins her hopes a daughter she raises to be independent, and who naturally grows up to be independent of her mom. This does some really meaningful stuff, looking at loneliness, desire, and disappointment. So much unspoken, undone. It all feels relatable and real.

Cathythoughts Nice review 👍🏻 I have this one stacked. 11mo
Graywacke @Cathythoughts oh, yay! Hope you find it rewarding. I really enjoyed it, and hope something of it hangs around a bit. 11mo
LeahBergen I‘m “reimpressed” by her writing whenever I pick up one of her novels. 11mo
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Graywacke @LeahBergen I can see that. I‘m glad i read this and got a sense of her writing. 11mo
DrSabrinaMoldenReads You and I are so on the same page about our reading. (No pun intended.) I‘ve loved every Brookner that I‘ve read. I definitely will now check this one out. (edited) 9mo
Graywacke @DrSabrinaMoldenReads This was my first Brookner. How many have you read? 9mo
48 likes1 stack add6 comments
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Graywacke
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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Well, that‘s an open eye. Anyway another book I‘m starting, and a new-to-me author.

dabbe Precious Pepper! 💙🐾💚 11mo
Graywacke @dabbe she loves the compliments 🙂 11mo
Cathythoughts I loved the ones I‘ve read of Brookner. Stacking this one 👍🏻 11mo
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batsy Snuggly pupper! 11mo
Graywacke @Cathythoughts so clean, skilled, organized and compelling. So well done. Brookner here makes reading very easy. (And it‘s just one of her many novels. Are they all like this?) 11mo
Graywacke @batsy she‘s a little big for actually snuggling, at 60 lbs. But she tries. 11mo
AllDebooks What a gorgeous dog 😍 I haven't read any Brookner for a long, long time. Loved Hotel Du Lac 11mo
Graywacke @AllDebooks she stoically appreciates your comment. 🙂 I just finished this novel, like an hour ago. So clean and easy to read. (edited) 11mo
49 likes1 stack add8 comments
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HardcoverHearts
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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It‘s time for the next book in my Brookner project with my friend Leo, who has a BookTube channel A Little Book Life. This will be our 11th in a row. It‘s been such a joy to see her grow as an author from auspicious beginnings with a brilliant debut- A Start In Life. I have high hopes because the last one Brief Lives was magnificent!

29 likes1 stack add
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Emilymdxn
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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Pickpick

Astoundingly good! Harriet is probably one of my favourite female characters in 20th century literature now. I loved how subtly drawn she was, how we saw all her conflict and devotion and disappointment and even tho she wasn‘t a ‘strong female character‘ in many ways at all, she was so vital and real. It‘s rare for me to feel so awestruck by how real a character is to me.

BarbaraBB Your review is convincing. Stacked! 6y
Emilymdxn @BarbaraBB hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 💖💖💖 6y
31 likes4 stack adds2 comments
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Emilymdxn
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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With a qualm of fear she turned away, for even worse than seeing the stranger was the thought of the stranger seeing her, lonely, at the window, and gazing with longing at a world which was beginning to disclose concealment, estrangement, silence.

Maybe I‘m in a slightly #melancholy mood but I loved this line

JenniferP I love Anita Brookner. Great quote! 6y
Emilymdxn @JenniferP I‘ve fallen in love with her in just the first 45 pages of this one! Definitely want to read Hotel du Lac now 6y
JenniferP I‘ve read Hotel du Lac and A Friend From England and loved them both. I need to get back to her! 6y
24 likes3 comments
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Emilymdxn
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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Intense #coverlove for my next read 😍😍😍

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Leftcoastzen
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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Brookner alert :OMG there are more , a second shelf! So many Brookners so little time!

batsy That is so funny... I can never find used Brookner novels here! 6y
LeahBergen 😂😂 They‘re breeding. 6y
saresmoore @batsy We‘ll send you a bunch and you can bookfairy them into local stores. Then maybe they‘ll multiply like @LeahBergen said! 😂 6y
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batsy @saresmoore @LeahBergen Now I can't help but think of these used Brookner books as little Gremlins 😭😂 6y
Leftcoastzen @batsy Book distribution worldwide keeps me up at night.she wrote a lot in the 80s and 90s , would that make a difference on if they might be around ?I am amazed at the lack of variety in my used bookstores,fewer new stores means fewer used books.Some titles I look up on Abebooks or Amazon thinking they are rare and expensive,and find they are incredibly cheap. 6y
ReadingEnvy MOTHER LOAD 6y
batsy It truly puzzles me, too! I have no idea idea how it works. It's hard to find her books in a regular bookstores as well, which is strange. 6y
ValerieAndBooks I had no idea she was so productive 😲. Regarding used bookstores— I think the types of books they attract may also depend on location— I.e. less variety depending on the neighborhood it‘s in or near. 6y
Leftcoastzen @ValerieAndBooks Very true about location.2 used ones that are sister stores on opposite sides of town ,one more family ,kids , bestseller oriented, the one near the university more academic and pop culture in focus. 6y
27 likes9 comments
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VeryLazyDaisy
A Closed Eye | Anita Brookner
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I brought home eighty-four books from the used book sale, and only found one Anita Brookner. Last year I got two or three. I so love books.

tricours Wow! 7y
Ms.Story 😮👍🏻👍🏻 7y
7 likes2 comments