This is one of Anita Brookner's novels written from a male perspective. Brookner's male voice is convincing and poignant. Anita Brookner creates beautiful English worlds, where nothing very dramatic happens, lives are quiet and dignified. Alan Sherwood is a solicitor who having once become obsessed by the beautiful, selfish, and deeply unpleasant Sarah, is unable to leave her behind. After a short liaison with her, his life is punctuated by a couple of fleeting glimpses and brief meetings which change his life. Alan takes refuge in a loveless marriage with Angela, another deeply unhappy character. His cosy relationship with his mother is changed by her second marriage, and Jenny - the wife of his uncle Humphrey - is drawn unhappily into Alan's marriage, and is also pathetically obsessed with an indifferent Sarah. Alan has to live with the guilt of his betrayal, and come to terms with his life.
I did find the time-line of this novel confusing - I was never certain how much time was supposed to have gone by - some people seemed to age quite a bit - while others didn't seem so much older at all. It is quite difficult to date the events, although it isn't really important. Also Sarah is described on the back cover as Alan's cousin, however, she was the daughter of his (much older) half sister. Still these are minor irritations in an otherwise brilliant novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written novel, no one writes about solitude and quiet rain soaked evening streets better than Brookner. ( )

Compelling and very well written but flaws in the construction of the book made me rate it lower than I would have otherwise. A bit of a spoiler here - Sarah is actually the daughter of Alan's half-sister (pp. 10/11 Penguin edition) which makes her his half-niece. However, the back cover says she is his "cousin" and he refers to her as his "distant relative" in the book - will no allusion at all to Marjorie and Sibyl being his half-sisters - and they pop up in the book quite often. I believe this is a result of a muddle on Brookner's part, or an oversight by an editor - certainly the issue of incest is not what the book is about. There are also problems with the time line as the book moves from around 1970 to I assume the time it was written - mid 90's. People age too much, or not enough. There is another tiny plot item that Alan, being a lawyer, should know about, but seems completely befuddled. That being said, I think it is one of Brookner's best books - it certainly had me enthralled from beginning to end. Highly recommended. ( )

Another fine piece from Anita Brookner. Few writers have her ability to dissect emotions, feelings, and relationships. She plumbs the depths and squeezes every nuance, every consideration and angle out of the most trivial of observations or incidents. And she does so with such a clear style, such pellucid writing, that you are swept up in the unfolding, and often unravelling, of lives.

This is the story of Alan Sherwood, a respected, conservative English solicitor who once steps outside of his persona to have a passionate affair with a woman who has never, in her entire life, given one iota of thought for the concerns or wishes of another. It goes badly because Alan does not know what he is dealing with, and he keeps trying to put Sarah into a box that is within his understanding; his inability to see the impossibility of doing that is what leads him into unrequited obsession and then into a disastrous marriage with a woman who was Sarah's friend, as much as anyone could be Sarah's friend. In a sense Alan pays for his folly with a lonely that he seems resigned to, but in which there will always be a sense of loss, a sense of missed opportunities, and squandered chances, all because he could not see that the box did not exist.