Anita Brookner's 'Look At Me': A Deep Dive with Backlisted Podcast

Discussing Anita Brookner's 'Look At Me'

• 📚 The podcast episode focuses on Anita Brookner's third novel, 'Look At Me', published in 1983, with guests Una McCormack and Lucy Scholes joining hosts John Mitchinson and Andy Miller.
• 💬 Brookner, who wrote 24 novels starting in her 50s, is often misunderstood as only writing about lonely women; however, the discussion highlights her wit and the nuanced portrayal of solitude versus loneliness.
• 💡 The novel 'Look At Me' is praised for its exploration of the push and pull between solitude and the desire for connection, and the compromises involved in writing.

Reader Experiences and Perceptions

• 🌟 Andy Miller expresses a long-standing admiration for Brookner, having first encountered her work at school and recently rereading her novels with profound appreciation.
• 🧐 Lucy Scholes initially held a misconception that Brookner's novels were about unhappy spinsters but was won over by 'Hotel du Lac' and particularly 'Look At Me'.
• 🧠 The guests discuss Brookner's unique writing style, her ability to capture inner lives, and the surprising humor and depth in her work, challenging the perception of her as a niche or solely melancholic author.

Themes of Solitude, Writing, and Identity

• ✍️ A key quote from the novel emphasizes writing as a 'penance for not being lucky' and an attempt to reach out, highlighting the writer's struggle with memory and the desire for connection.
• 🎭 The novel explores the protagonist Francis Hinton's attempts to navigate her life, her yearning for the lives of others like Nick and Alex, and her internal conflict between solitude and engagement.
• 💔 The discussion touches on the novel's exploration of protection, the pain of unfulfilled desires, and the difficulty of understanding relationships and motives, particularly in the climactic scenes.

Brookner's Life and Literary Career

• 🎓 Anita Brookner's background as an art historian, including her time as the first woman Slade Professor at Cambridge, is noted as a significant influence on her literary approach, with her novels often structured like portraits.
• ⏳ The podcast highlights Brookner's prolific output, often writing one novel a year, and her unconventional start to her writing career at 53, initially to fill summer holidays.
• 🌟 Despite initial perceptions and some critical dismissal of her prolificacy, her later novels, like 'Falling Slowly', are considered as strong as her earlier works, with a consistent quality and unique narrative style.