{"id":411,"date":"2022-04-15T16:14:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T16:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/?p=411"},"modified":"2022-04-15T16:14:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T16:14:57","slug":"a-thoughtful-novel-about-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/15\/a-thoughtful-novel-about-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"A thoughtful novel about aging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Visitors-1.jpg?resize=211%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Visitors book cover with woman alone at dresser\" class=\"wp-image-407\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Visitors-1.jpg?resize=211%2C300&amp;ssl=1 211w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Visitors-1.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/84516.Visitors\">Visitors<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/28244.Anita_Brookner\">Anita Brookner<\/a><br><br>My rating: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/show\/4669557358\">4 of 5 stars<\/a><br><br><br>Dorothea seems an unlikely focus for a novel. Widowed fifteen years, she putters along from day to day, content&#8211;or so she&#8217;s convinced herself&#8211;to avoid any interactions beyond those prescribed by societal convention. The plot is simple and straightforward: when she&#8217;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.<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/84516.Visitors\">Visitors<\/a> is a pensive novel about family, aging, and expectation. Fireworks never ensue. Rather, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/28244.Anita_Brookner\">Anita Brookner<\/a> brings you along the slow gyrations of Thea&#8217;s every thought. We all know someone like Thea, I expect, and Brookner takes you inside her head with precision and delicacy.<br><br>The writing here is excellent, a descendant of the thoughtful, observant work of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/6765.Virginia_Woolf\">Virginia Woolf<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/159.Henry_James\">Henry James<\/a>. 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&#8217;s a beautiful novel about a somewhat sad life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8211;or so she&#8217;s convinced herself&#8211;to avoid any interactions beyond those prescribed by societal convention. The plot is simple and straightforward: when she&#8217;s asked by a relative of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paRPpr-6D","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrisonwein.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}