Take Suspense Where You Find It

Having added substantially to our house's book-holding capacity in last year's remodel, every volume I own is on a shelf for the first time since high school.  No more cartons in the garage.  I have books bought before my Bar Mitzvah and books bought this week standing upright ready to be read by one of my kids or by me.  My eyes are bigger than my stomach and plenty of the books I own are unread.  Tuesday night I was patroling the bookshelves looking for something to read. 

I started a few mysteries and, following the 50-page rule, put them back down.  They didn't grab me.  Books by the same author are grouped together in the Raffel Decimal System.  I noticed that the two authors with the most representation on the shelves were Edgar Rice Burroughs (21 of the Mars, Tarzan, and Venus series bought in my youth for 50 cents) and the pseudonymous Victor Appleton II (19 of the Tom Swift Jr. series in $1.25 hardbacks).  On the adult side I counted 8 Philip Roths, 9 Ross Macdonalds (mostly cheap paperbacks bought for 30 pence when I was studying in England), 8 C.P. Snows, 10 Dorothy Dunnetts.  No surprises there -- love them all.  But I was surprised to discover I had 9 Anita Brookners.  I ended up starting A Closed Eye, a 1991 novel.  And could not put it down.  I stayed up till 1 A.M. to finish. 

Now Ms. Brookner breaks every rule about writing that I was taught.  Show not tell, I was always told.  A Closed Eye was 262 pages with minimal dialogue -- it's almost all tell.  There's little action and the climax happens off-stage.  The book opens with a letter from Harriet Lytton to Lizzie, obviously a younger woman, who is invited to stay with her in Switzerland, but is warned not to mention one name on her visit.  So I raced through the book to discover what Harriet is doing in Switzerland and whose name ought not be mentioned.  Once I figured out who could not be mentioned, I kept reading to find out what happened to her.  Once I discovered what happened, I kept reading to see Harriet's reaction.  Though little happened, the book was chockful of suspense. Which goes to prove that every good novel is a mystery.  In my work-in-process, Two Graves, an editor shortened my paragraphs to punch it up.  Ms. Brookner's paragraphs usually run half a page and oftentimes more.  Did I learn anything from reading the book?  That everyone is the hero of his/her own life?  Maybe.  I'm still thinking.

Anita Brookner

Comments

[patti abbott]

I thhink Brookner is a genius. I know the rap on her is, read one, read 'em all--like Vivaldi. But just because someone knows a certain world, doesn't mean they can't do great things with it. Remember Barbara Pym or Jane Austen.

[Terrie Farley Moran]

"Which goes to prove that every good novel is a mystery."

How true. Once I start reading a book, I am propelled forward by wanting to know. Terrie

[Keith Raffel]

Patti -- I must confess to being a Barbara Pym fan, too. Have you tried Elizabeth Taylor? (Not that one. The novelist.) How about the early Margaret Drabble? What is it about the English female writers?

Terrie -- Nice hearing from you.

[patti abbott]

Love Elizabeth Taylor. Just saw Mrs. Palfrey at the Clairmont--almost as good as one on the page. Also In a Summer Season and several others.
The early Margaret Drabble's were stunning. Much less pretentious than her sister. She did fade over time for me as did Anne Tyler, Alice Munro, Alison Lurie. Or maybe my tastes changed. Thanks for reminding me of Taylor though.

[Keith Raffel]

Patti, and there's the Doris Lessing of Martha Quest, too. (Does colonial Rhodesian count as English?) Am looking forward to seeing Megan at M is for Mystery tomorrow!

[patti abbott]

Have to answer that. Loved Martha Quest. I have all Doris Lessing's memoirs on the TBR pile. Someday.
Hope Megan was holding up. This book touring stuff is hard.

[Keith Raffel]

Patti,

Megan was fine. Will blog on that, probably tomorrow.

Just thought of another favorite English female. Penelope Lively. The Photograph, Heat Wave. Both terrific. Have Moon Tiger on my pile.