The Debut [Paperback]

Anita Brookner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 1990

Since childhood Ruth Weiss has been escaping from life into books, and from the hothouse attentions of her tyrannical and eccentric parents into the gentler warmth of lovers and friends. Now Dr. Weiss, at forty, a quiet scholar devoted to the study of Balzac, is convinced that her life has been ruined by literature, and that once again she must make a new start in life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Precise and haunting...Brookner is a master at creating miniaturist portraits of attenuated lives"

-- The New York Times

"An almost flawless novel." -- People

"Sly, detached humor has caused Brookner to be compared to Barbara Pym, but her vision is darker and more complex .... Brookner's ambitions exceed those of Pym's genteel novels of manners and place her outside the genre, to which her writing, with its delicate shadings of character, otherwise seem suited."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Anita Brookner is a stunning writer." -- Edna O'Brien

"Deft, lively and quite touching." -- Mary Gordon

From the Inside Flap

Since childhood Ruth Weiss has been escaping from life into books, and from the hothouse attentions of her tyrannical and eccentric parents into the gentler warmth of lovers and friends. Now Dr. Weiss, at forty, a quiet scholar devoted to the study of Balzac, is convinced that her life has been ruined by literature, and that once again she must make a new start in life.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Vintage Contemporaries Edition Feb. 1990 edition (February 19, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679727124
• ISBN-13: 978-0679727125
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Writer Sets Out, January 11, 2010

By 

Roger Brunyate "reader/writer/musician" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Debut (Paperback)

[This book was originally published in Britain as A START IN LIFE, a title whose irony is especially poignant. I am not sure whether there are other alterations between the two texts as well. The review below is based on the British version.]

"Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature." So begins the first of the many novels that Anita Brookner would publish virtually annually between 1982 and the present. It has all the hallmarks of her later work -- the protagonist an educated woman no longer in her first youth, the story a brush with romance, the mood bitter-sweet, and the style impeccable -- and yet it is distinctly different from most of those that follow -- funnier for one thing, and focusing on several characters rather than just one.

Ruth Weiss, an expert on Balzac, teaches French Literature at London University. She leads a quiet academic life where none of her colleagues would be so distasteful as to pry into her personal existence as a woman, and yet she has one -- or at least has had one. After the opening chapter, the novel plunges back in time to when Ruth, the only child of a Jewish book-dealer and an English comedy actress, is a promising high school student. It follows her as she goes to London University as an undergraduate, and then to Paris to pursue doctoral research. It shows her struggles to get out from under her demanding but useless parents -- the actress mother no longer able to get roles, the father prematurely retired. It reveals her encounters with romance, running the gamut from abject failure to sensible accommodation. One can sympathize with Ruth, cheer for her, weep with her, but fortunately also laugh with her. Brookner's humor is understated, but it enlivens almost every page.

I must admit to personal reasons for liking this book; this used to be my own world. Ruth is of my generation; her career is remarkably similar to that of my first wife; and I myself did graduate study in Paris, when I was briefly a student of Professor Brookner's in her other career as an art historian. There is one glimpse of this in the book, when Ruth visits the Louvre and Brookner distills her impressions into a single magnificent paragraph; here is one sentence: "She paid a duty visit to the early-nineteenth-century galleries and was bemused, as always, by the sheer size of everything: giant figures enmeshed with one another, toiling towards rescue after shipwreck, towards liberty after oppression, towards Paris after Moscow; never would they find peace or be reconciled to their proper dimensions." It is a perfect example of Brookner's measured style, her spot-on descriptions (in this case of Géricault, Delacroix, and Gros), and her own twist of humor at the end.

Anita Brookner and Ruth Weiss might well be amused by such Romantic excesses, for neither of them ever venture beyond their proper dimensions; that is their charm. But there are places in this early novel when the secondary characters -- the parents and the housekeeper -- verge on tragicomic melodrama. In her later novels, Brookner would rein this in, achieving an autumnal watercolor perfection in her Booker Prizewinning HOTEL DU LAC, or a poised tristesse when she revisits a theme similar to this one in the beautiful LEAVING HOME. But this first fictional outing has an exuberance all of its own, which makes it an ideal introduction to Brookner's tragicomic genius.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immensely satisfying..., July 9, 2010

By 

John P. Jones III (Albuquerque, NM, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Debut (Paperback)

I first came by Anita Brookner via her Booker Prize winning novel, Hotel Du Lac; purchased in my favorite bookstore in Paris, which is the setting for part of this novel. I'm sure some might debate the technical merits of this one against her award winner, but I found them both quite enjoyable and insightful; the differentiation I'll leave to the literary specialists.

Speaking of which, the protagonist, Dr Ruth Weiss, is a Professor and literary specialist on Honoré de Balzac. The first chapter depicts her in that mid-life role, but the vast majority of the book concerns how she assumed that role, her "debut" into the adult world, as she managed to shake off the influences of a highly dysfunctional family situation, and found solace in literature. Brookner introduces one of the central themes early, in the form of non-translated French, a quote from Balzac's "Eugenie Grandet." Like many other English writers of a certain class, she assumes that her readers understand the language of the diplomatic world (well, at least of the 18th Century). And if you'll excuse my French, as it were, she states the fear of many a woman who worries that her wit, intelligence and character just might not be enough for him; that the deciding factor will be her physical beauty.

Ruth's mother, Helen, is an actress passed her prime, endlessly reminiscing of her triumphs, on stage, and sometimes in bed, and now enveloped in hypochondria. Her father, George, used to own and run a bookstore, but has now taken to some modest philandering, rationalized since it is not fully consummated. There is the live-in "housekeeper" of sorts, Mrs. Cutler, who provides a useful foil. Ruth does escape to Paris, to continue her work on Balzac, and is taken advantage of by various so-called friends. Still, she struggles, maintains her dignity, and comes of age, but there is the constant vortex of doom, her family situation, and their needs, that pull her back to England.

Brookner delightfully re-packages an aphorism by Oscar Wilde: "Work, she thought, is a paradox; it is the sort of thing people do out of sheer inability to do anything else. Work is the chosen avocation of people who have no other calls on their time." The author's core strengths (as they say in business) are observations on the male-female relationships. Consider: "She studied the couple closely, as if they were an unknown species. They were, in fact, an unknown species. They were happy." Or, "Hugh also took Ruth back to her room one day and started to make love to her; she was so amazed that she forgot all the routine objections." Throughout the novel, Ruth receives many an unsolicited "improvement" comment from the more worldly-wise Anthea. Finally, Ruth asks her, concerning those aforementioned relationships: "Is it all a game, then?" Anthea looked sadly back. "Only if you win," was her reply. "If you lose, it's far more serious." Finally, in terms of quotes, Brookner might be considered a traitor, at least to her gender, for this one: "Some women take advantage. Once they're married, and they've got a good husband, they think they can do what they like. And if they take him for granted"- she paused significantly-"they just don't bother any more."

Overall, Brookner weaves an excellent story, erudite, well-placed, and informed on the human condition. The author's style is a rare mixture of understated British humor surrounding a tale that goes deep into the heart of sadness. A marvelous 5-star read that has pushed me to read Eugénie Grandet, if not even more of Balzac.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A child of the self-absorbed, April 17, 2010

By 

Manola Sommerfeld (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Debut (Paperback)

The story never reveals if Helen is an only child, but her behavior suggests it. George is an only child, and when two narcissistic personalities collide, it is the children that suffer. Ruth understands early on that she is just another household piece to her parent's eyes. She takes it remarkably well, although I would never be able to forgive her parents' selfishness.

Although the ending, what refers to Roddy, is quite abrupt and should have been worked out more, I found this a very satisfying novel. I did not enjoy Hotel du Lac, so this was a wonderful surprise.