我很喜欢读英国现代女作家布鲁克诺(Anita Brookner）的小说。布鲁克诺是当代著名的18 和19世纪法国艺术史学家，曾在剑桥大学执教多年。退休以后，大部分时间写小说，被英国文学界称为当代的奥斯丁。布鲁克诺差不多每年发表一部小说，至今已出版了20多部。她的好几个故事已被BBC改拍成电视剧。她的很多书我都有收藏，闲来无事之时，拿出来看看，对人生颇有启发。
布鲁克诺的故事都是描写英国中产阶级， 大部分是中年女人，虽然衣食无忧，却生活很空虚，但是又没有勇气或途径改变自己的状况，就这样无可奈何地默默度过平凡寂寞的人生。她的故事大都没有紧张情结，基本是女主人公自述。布鲁克诺文笔优美， 清新流畅。在读她的故事时，就好像在漫长的旅途夜晚，听一位陌生旅客娓娓倾诉她的一生经历（坐过长途火车的人有时会有这样的经历）。
我曾经特特地向我先生推荐过布鲁克诺的一本小说，希望他读完之后和我交流（读书之后互相交流也是人生一大快乐）。我先生睡觉前看了两章，告诉我他以后慢慢看。两个月后我问他那本书读完没有。我先生是学工科的，为人忠厚老实，不会撒谎。他脸一红，支支吾吾地说还没读完。我问他读到哪一章了，他说第三章。我说两个月前不是已看完两章了，怎么现在还在看第三章。他这才说，看了两章后，什么都没发生，到了第三章，女主人公仍在Bla, Bla, Bla（喋喋不休地唠叨）, 实在看不下去了。男人大概都不喜欢看有太多心理描写的小说。
在这个世界上，谁又能真正了解他人的生活？有时候，与其说读书是为了了解他人和外界，不如说是通过阅读别人的故事来解析自己。有一次，在我读一篇故事的时候，忽然想起年轻时令我困惑的一件往事，突然豁然开朗，放下书本，不禁叹道：“原来如此！”在读书的时候，我经常想起我青少年时代的朋友，他们带给我的欢乐和悲哀。
Brookner is highly regarded as a stylist. Her novels explore themes of emotional loss and difficulties associated with fitting into society, and typically depict intellectual, middle-class women, who suffer isolation and disappointments in love. Many of Brookner's characters are the children of European immigrants to Britain; a number appear to be of Jewish descent. Brookner's fourth book, Hotel du Lac (1984) was awarded the Booker Prize.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Brookner
All of these things are present in A Closed Eye, yet I think it is the most different of all Brookner's novels. Protagonist Harriet Lytton rages against the inertia of life like no other Brookner character in my memory. But true to Brookner's fach, Harriet's rage is silent and largely unacted upon. So intensely does she want her daughter Imogen to capture all the life she herself has missed that she fails to do anything about her own situation. She accepts, in fact encourages (albeit silently), Imogen becoming spoiled, self-centered, and insufferably intolerant of her. And although, like most other Brookner heroines, Harriet's life is once of complacency, surrounded by death and depression and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, she does at least have old school friends that form a support network. And Harriet makes at least one bold move that separates her from the typical Brookner model. And in the end--so subtle that one could miss it--there is a glimmer of hope.
There is something about these bleak books that not only fascinate me but comfort me as well. I recognize that there is something about the isolation that I find alluring. But I have opined before that I am also drawn to these characters because they are cautionary tales. Perfect examples of what I don't want to become. A typically bleak scene:
"Suddenly there was nothing for her to do. Freddie ate lunch out, so she made do with a sandwich. She could have taken a long walk, for in the early days of her marriage she had keenly regretted her lost liberty, but now that she was older she preferred to stay indoors and look out of the window. There was little to see in the quiet square; few people passed, and if she saw anyone she knew she retreated instinctively."
So what of the plot? There is one, there always is with Brookner. But the details and the emotions are so much the point that plot doesn't really matter. And for once I have an answer to the question: "Which Brookner should I start with?" I have never been able to answer this before because of the sameness of Brookner's novels. For those that think you would be predisposed to like this kind of book, you can start anywhere. But for those of you who aren't sure, you should start with A Closed Eye. It contains enough action that it could unwittingly ease you into the depressing, but cosy, warm-bath-water-world of Brookner's fiction. Like slipping into a coma.
On the other hand if you are prone to depression you might want to steer clear of Brookner entirely.
