Customer Reviews

Undue Influence

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Wendy Steiner, reviewing Brookner's Undue Influence for the New York Times Book Review, finds fault with the first-person narrator for transparently revealing a heavy-handed authorial control that shows little respect for the inutitive reader. Kirkus Reviews, likewise, regards the protagonist, Claire Pitt, "more a symptom than a person." Even more damning than its contention that Claire is less a character than a theme is its final pronouncement that the book is "dry and unmoving." I disagree with both reviews and would argue that Claire's character flaws, evident in her reactions to Martin Gibson and revealed in the careful, probing style of Brookner's writing, dawn upon the reader gradually and as a result of compounding evidence laid out by an author certain of her reader's ability to discern.

Claire Pitt, the 29 year old protagonist of Brookner's latest novel, prides herself on understanding the weaknesses of others, but her intellectual pride paves the way to a disastrous miscalculation into the motives of Martin Gibson, the widower whose serious attentions Claire hopes to attract. Claire's misguided reliance on her own intellect leads her to offer herself physically to a man she thinks is weak and shy of the world; this intimacy, she hopes, will create a bond that will eventually lead to marriage. Despite the fact that Martin has proved repeatedly that he is self-absorbed and not even remotely interested in Claire's life and thoughts, Claire does not believe he is capable of duplicity. It's an age-old dilemma. The intimacy proves to be a false one, and Claire suffers an emotional setback at a time in her life when she can least afford it.

The surprise ending comes about rather quickly and may not even be a surprise to readers accustomed to seeking out foreshadowing. Even if anticipated, however, it is not inconsistent with anything we already know about Claire and Martin. Despite Claire's intellectual capacity, she fails to intuit what her less analytical friend, Wiggy, would have seen immediately: Martin Gibson, wearing the cloak of the sensitive and long-suffering man, is as capable of taking comfort where he can find it as any other human being, and further, is just as capable of walking away from it and seeking more permanent bonds elsewhere.

The book is quintessential Brookner and adds weight to her impressive body of work.

I want to reassure her many fans, and advise those that are fortunate enough to have ahead of them the pleasure of discovering her, that Anita Brookner's latest novel is one of her very best. Anita Brookner is the only writer I know whose words seem to lighten the air I breathe. Life is what happens while awaiting her next novel, and UNDUE INFLUENCE makes the past year's anticipation worthwhile. By placing Claire Pitt (a bookish young spinster-in-waiting) under her microscope, and by dissecting her every thought, Brookner has shown that there are many hours of pleasure still to be derived from wallowing in self-indulgent introspection. I have two wishes for Ms Brookner: that she write faster, and that she outlive me.

Is it just me, or is each of Anita Brookner's heroines treading down the same bland, lonely path? While I enjoyed the (more compelling) characters of The Misalliance and Hotel du Lac, this book -- and Bay of Angels -- simply eat at my soul. To give Brookner credit, it's a beautifully written book. But it's as if she's trying to repeatedly work through the same problem -- unsuccessfully -- ad nauseam. The 20-something "spinster" imprisoned by circumstances, attracted to and betrayed by the wrong men, thirsting for anything that smacks of real life yet doing nothing to break out of the artificial ties that bind. Add another 20 years to this heroine, make her regretfully childless or a grudgingly single mother, and you have the stock character number-two. Sometimes the two even appear in the same book, and I, for one, would love to see Brookner's considerable craft not wasted on truly regrettable, forgettable characters.

Yes, it is true that Anita Brookner's writing is not for everyone, and when I started reading her novels several years ago I found them painfully depressing and difficult to appreciate. But now that I am older and wiser, I have found every one that I have read simply fascinating. She is easily one of my favorite authors, simply for the fact that she writes so intelligently, and I can identify with the characters in every one of her stories (what that says about my life, I don't care to think too much about..) Whenever I read one of her novels, I find that I have to keep a highlighter close to me, because Brookner manages to put into words the feelings and thoughts that I don't have the courage or the eloquence to express myself. Her novels are by no means uplifting, but they are not without wit or hope. "Undue Influence" is definitely one of her finest.

Every now and then I pick up a novel by Anita Brookner after I've read something rather Rabelaisian or epic. The smaller canvas and quiet introspection provide a nice contrast to larger, more flamboyant works of fiction. As I read "Undue Influence," I was struck by the fact that the inner landscapes of Ms. Brookner's characters(in particular, her female protagonists)are as exotic and fascinating as any jungle or tropical beach. I believe that the central character of this novel, Claire Pitt, could ONLY have been created by a female. As a male reader, I find this exploration of the feminine mind a real adventure, full of unexpected twists and turns. This is not meant to be a condescending remark--I truly believe that men and women process their thoughts and emotions differently. I will go so far as to say that this book presents a challenge to male readers(and this is a GOOD thing). There is an intense female sensibility in Brookner's fiction. Claire reminds me of Austen's Emma Woodhouse, or Catherine Morland in the way that she speculates and create fictions about friends, acquaintances, and even total strangers. Maybe it's a way to make her self-imposed isolation more bearable. At times I want to hit her over the head, but she continues to follow her own path and sort out things in her own time. Even at her most delusional moments, she can be profound. My favorite epiphany in the book begins with Claire saying to the reader(and I paraphrase this)"Let me tell you what women really want."(Chapter 17) Even though she's all wrong about the guy, Claire has startlingly insightful things to say. Often, I had trouble reconciling Claire's mousy demeanor with the fact that she was, by her own admission, reasonably attractive. In places, I found this novel to be somewhat diffuse and, at times, attenuated. My favorite novels of her's so far are "Hotel Du Lac, A Friend From England, and A Private View." Still, Anita Brookner continues to write fiction that is elegant and probing. Recommended.

Lucky you, if you've not read "Undue Influence" yet. If you belong to Brookner's regular readers, you will, once more, rejoice in her faultless prose. Claire, the central character, is younger than usual. She is also funny, in her way. Her sense of humour is actually sometimes astonighingly understated, as well as past "romances," but the humour and the sexual-if-not-romantical past of Claire are very present in that particular novel. Being French, I read English much better than I can write it: thank you for forgiving my grammar mistakes.

I couldn't wait to finish Undue Influence by Anita Brookner, not because I liked it, but because I wanted it out of my life. I felt that every character in this book was unlikable and led incredibly boring lives. Ms. Brookner has the narrator Claire Pitt repeating the same tedious thoughts over and over again. Claire likes to speculate about people's lives, but her imagination is only capable of making up dull stories. I did not believe any of the characters were real people. Claire is a 29-year-old woman, but she seemed decades older to me. I can sum it all up with a quote from the book. Claire has met someone in a shop with whom she had had the briefest passing acquaintance and tries to engage the woman in conversation, but is essentially rebuffed. Claire tells the reader "It was only natural that I seemed uninteresting; I was even uninteresting to myself." Claire, I couldn't agree with you more.

This is my own bias, but no doubt Ms. Brookner's primary gift is here prose craftsmanship--as good as David Foster Wallace (though about 180% different)or Jeanette Winterson. This woman can write! Her writing (with the obvious exception of about every 15th sentence, which contains a 25- word spiralling subordinate clause)is very, very strong--meticulously crafted and lyrical, at the same time. If you don't read to read good prose, then much of what this book has to offer will have no appeal to you whatever. As you can see, my review is far, far more postitive than the others (in fact, can you find on this website a cluster of reviews this hostile towards an author of this stature--probably not). The fact is though, I pretty much agree with those reviews, the reasons anyway, just not the conclusions. Think about how complex this person is though (Clare Pitt, the main character). Is this a person I would want to be friends with if I had just met? I doubt it--I would think she was just about the most boring person I had ever met, the kind who was liked by her teachers, teaches sunday school, reads Anita Brookner novels, and obsessively uses coasters whenever she puts a drink down. But from her internal monologue, I saw this as a fascinating person--very, very conflicted.

I've read the other reviews here and I can not understand how anyone would rate UNDUE INFUENCE one star and complain it was boring. If a reader had cause to finish the novel, the story of Claire Pitt must have had some fascination, some impact that rates it higher! I found Claire facinating and very human. Loveable in her way. She represents a side of the human condition we don't like to think about: loneliness, longing, vulnerability, regret. To a great extent she is the byproduct of her past, her upbringing; it is this which casts a wide net on her inexplicable behavior--an undue influence. She needs to care for another, as her mother cared for her sick father. It is only through love that we fulfill our full capacity to be human.

I found Claire to be very human. She is extremely intelligent, with an introspection that was continually interesting. She wants to love, be loved, to be listened to (which is a sign of love); yet her "misunderstandings," her takes on people, including her feelings about Martin, mislead and upset her and she pays the price. I empathised greatly with her in the end.

Claire's is a feminine voice though. She speaks, honestly, without a filter, the needs of a woman and I think men especially should read it to broaden their view of a woman's mind.

Brookner is a superb writer. If you have an interest in serious fiction that is character based, intellectually honest, and psychologically facinating, read Brookner.

I am a devoted Brookner reader so I will be biased. I enjoy her sentences and observations; the themes and characters inhabiting her work often function as simple vessels for the striking images and ideas which dominate these books. In this last novel, of all the wacky protagonists she has created, Claire Pitt is immersed in her fantasy life to the point of blindness. She's grieving the death of her mother, she can't think straight, yet she's getting on with her day, her life and making big misjudgements. This is familiar Brookner territory but it never fails to be effective and exciting. The people who surround Claire, in particular the two elderly women who own the rare book shop, as well as the father and son who buy them out, are intriguing and fully, if sadly, developed.

A friend in London recently told me some good gossip: while waiting for his bus he sees Brookner heading out to theWaitRose Supermarket on the King's Road at eight in the morning to do her shopping. First I was struck with how similar this is to her own characters with their ordered lives which begin early in the day. But if I saw Brookner on the street I would want to talk to her. "Doesn't anybody stop and speak with her," I asked. "No," he replied, "I doubt anybody knows who she is." Amazing, humbling and wonderful.