Incidents in the Rue Laugier (Isis Series)

Rating:
Summary: A Searingly Intense Love Story
Review: Few writers ever attain the depth of character and emotion so succinctly captured by Anita Brookner. Her characters beckon us to read on for as we examine their lives, we find we cannot cannot help but be moved to investigate the deepest feelings and motivations in our own lives as well. Within the novel,Brookner herself becomes philosopher as she wonders about the mystery of our emotional desires and why the events of our lives turn out the way they do. Brookner captivates the reader with her own special magic; with prose that seems almost poetic and with characters so beautifully drawn they are unforgettable.

Rating:
Summary: A Searingly Intense Love Story
Review: For fans of Anita Brookner, this one is almost the best. Did not find it depressing at all, on the contrary. The elegance and persuasiveness of the language is sheer pleasure, not a single false note in the characters. Ms. Brookner is a genius, ranks up there with Virginia Woolf.

Rating:
Summary: Incidents in the Rue Laugier
Review: For fans of Anita Brookner, this one is almost the best. Did not find it depressing at all, on the contrary. The elegance and persuasiveness of the language is sheer pleasure, not a single false note in the characters. Ms. Brookner is a genius, ranks up there with Virginia Woolf.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful - a vision of one possible life
Review: This book is a wonderful example of practicality, romance, love and responsibility. The people in this book are very human and so are all their aches, pains and actions. cause and effect seems to be the main theme. I recommend this book to anyone who doesn't expect every book to be "fiction lite".

Rating:
Summary: depressing, dark, devoid of hope
Review: This book made me want to weep. A study in the downward spiral that we all ride only to find ourselves at the end of the rope, the chair kicked out from under our legs.

Rating:
Summary: A human tragedy.
Review: This novel was truly depressing. It was all about the childhood dreams of the two main characters, Maud and Edward, and how their small dreams never came to fruition. Throughout the book the characters strive for and constantly fall short of what they desire, which in both cases is freedom and love. Neither can relate to the other which leaves them both emotionally stunted and unable to fully enjoy what should be a good life together. One of the biggest problems I had with the book was the timescale. It seemed to me that the dates given really didn't match with the attitudes or style of living described in the book. I fully believed that the book was taking place around the early 20th century and was shocked when it finally declared itself to be set in 1971. All in all this is not a bad book, although I myself did not really care for it. It is well written and the story is interesting, although depressing and tragic. Incidents in the Rue Laugier seems to me to be a bitter book written about lives lived in dissatisfaction and regret. By the end of this book, I have to admit that I was really depressed and disliked the characters intensely. I could not empathise with them at all. However, by the fact that it left me sad and angry it is clear that it certainly made an emotional impact on me.

Rating:
Summary: A human tragedy.
Review: This novel was truly depressing. It was all about the childhood dreams of the two main characters, Maud and Edward, and how their small dreams never came to fruition. Throughout the book the characters strive for and constantly fall short of what they desire, which in both cases is freedom and love. Neither can relate to the other which leaves them both emotionally stunted and unable to fully enjoy what should be a good life together. One of the biggest problems I had with the book was the timescale. It seemed to me that the dates given really didn't match with the attitudes or style of living described in the book. I fully believed that the book was taking place around the early 20th century and was shocked when it finally declared itself to be set in 1971. All in all this is not a bad book, although I myself did not really care for it. It is well written and the story is interesting, although depressing and tragic. Incidents in the Rue Laugier seems to me to be a bitter book written about lives lived in dissatisfaction and regret. By the end of this book, I have to admit that I was really depressed and disliked the characters intensely. I could not empathise with them at all. However, by the fact that it left me sad and angry it is clear that it certainly made an emotional impact on me.

Rating:
Summary: A woman looking for herself in all the wrong places
Review: When your mother laments days of French aristocracy and raises you to respectability, you rebel by choosing an English cad. Meanwhile, a respectable, bookish man yearns for you. Maud Gonthier, like Emma Bovary, confuses respectability with boredom, but unlike Emma, Maud manages to survive the folly of her desires and whims. Maud is intensely likeable in this protrait told by her daughter.