Visitors by Anita Brookner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Dorothea seems an unlikely focus for a novel. Widowed fifteen years, she putters along from day to day, content–or so she’s convinced herself–to avoid any interactions beyond those prescribed by societal convention. The plot is simple and straightforward: when she’s asked by a relative of her late husband to host a young guest in her house for a family wedding, she agrees, and his very presence prompts her to reassess her daily existence.

Visitors is a pensive novel about family, aging, and expectation. Fireworks never ensue. Rather, Anita Brookner brings you along the slow gyrations of Thea’s every thought. We all know someone like Thea, I expect, and Brookner takes you inside her head with precision and delicacy.

The writing here is excellent, a descendant of the thoughtful, observant work of Virginia Woolf and Henry James. I found it doing just what a novel is supposed to do; it prompts you to think about your own life choices and challenge your own assumptions. It’s a beautiful novel about a somewhat sad life.