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A review by manwithanagenda
The Debut by Anita Brookner
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I blame the publisher and the author equally on this. The reader is promised a story about "A new start" in life and that is not what we have here. 'The Debut' is short, the prose unobjectionable, and the characters sufficiently entertaining, but nothing happens. I should say that nothing happens more than usual for literary fiction.
Ruth Weiss thinks back over her childhood, her school years and the events that put her on the path to being the kind of women she is. Ruth indeed blames her lot on literature and there are some great thoughts on the subject of expectations of love and literature and Balzac. I am a clod, but I should have seen some progress in Ruth in these pages, some sign that this truly is a Debut, or in the original title, a Start in Life. I liked the book, but it lied to me.
Ruth Weiss thinks back over her childhood, her school years and the events that put her on the path to being the kind of women she is. Ruth indeed blames her lot on literature and there are some great thoughts on the subject of expectations of love and literature and Balzac. I am a clod, but I should have seen some progress in Ruth in these pages, some sign that this truly is a Debut, or in the original title, a Start in Life. I liked the book, but it lied to me.