tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post7701622827898496470..comments2024-03-25T22:59:30.053+00:00Comments on Desperate Reader: Hotel Du Lac - Anita Brookner Desperate Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-69493139296294649052012-10-06T22:05:03.162+01:002012-10-06T22:05:03.162+01:00Far to beautiful a writer to dismiss on the basis ...Far to beautiful a writer to dismiss on the basis of the niggles I had with the book. I'm sure I'll be back for more.Desperate Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-67617102119834171782012-10-06T22:03:11.358+01:002012-10-06T22:03:11.358+01:00Feel free to repost Thomas. The postal book group ...Feel free to repost Thomas. The postal book group is an old fashioned idea but a good one. It comes from the same on-line book group where I met Simon Stuck-in-a-book and Elaine Random Jottings and there are no shortage of people taking part.<br /><br />I started to make a point that 'Hotel du Lac' might seem less dated in another decade or so. Had it been set somewhere more provincial I would have believed in it rather more but as it stands - well, I'm roughly the same age as Edith is in the book so my memories of the eighties are quite youthful as are those of most my friends. But you're quite right when you mention dire 80's sit coms, it was a different sort of world and Edith would probably have been very familiar to women of a slightly earlier generation than mine. Desperate Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-59014033796779044402012-10-06T14:57:14.333+01:002012-10-06T14:57:14.333+01:00You knew I would chime in on this one...
I think ...You knew I would chime in on this one...<br /><br />I think Brookner definitely has an old fashion view of life and gender roles, no doubt about it. By the time Brookner wrote her first novel (at 53 in 1981)her world view must have been pretty definitely formed, and most of the characters throughout all of her novels seem like throwbacks to an earlier time. But I don't think I would put them as far back as the 1930s. Lately I have been watching the painfully bad British "comedy" May to December which was made in the 80s. I can definitely see a Brookner character being a contemporary of the characters on that show. They wouldn't have hung out in the same circles, but they could have existed at the same time. I think the 1980s were more old fashioned than we remember (for those of us who can remember). I will admit, however, that even if you grant me that point, Brookner's characters would have seemed old fashioned in the 1980s, but perhaps not as old fashioned as we think.<br /><br />Can I repost your review on the IABD blogsite?<br /><br />Also, FYI, al--and I mean all--of Brookner's characters are "too passive and too well off" so if you read more of her novels you will see more of that type of character.<br /><br />And speaking of throwbacks...your "postal book group" is positively medieval. Of course I love the idea of it but I could never find enough people willing to do it, especially in this day and age when we all have blogs.Thomas Hogglestockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14284352537015457974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-10899836195731778362012-10-05T23:27:20.072+01:002012-10-05T23:27:20.072+01:00I felt exactly the same, Hayley - there's some...I felt exactly the same, Hayley - there's something off about it, and I think it's the setting. It just doesn't fit being set in the 80's at all and I found the whole book weirdly off kilter as a result. She is a beautiful writer, though!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com