I can’t remember how many times I’ve read this novel. I’m simply captivated by Brookner’s prose. Undeniably worthy of five stars. It has the best first paragraph, in my opinion, compared to other novels by Brookner. ( )

All women in this novel are weak, they believe that happiness can only be found in marriage, they rely on men: “I looked at him helplessly. He was a man; let him make the decisions.” The men are seen as the saviors, both from unhappiness and complicated situations.

Of course it’s fiction, but after reading twenty novels by Anita Brookner I think I can by now fairly deduct Brookner’s views. In The Bay of Angels she calls the 1950s “prelapsarian”, a not commonly used expression which refers to the time before the fall of humankind.

To think that this was published in 2001 is mind blowing.

This is the third Brookner novel I've read now, with Hotel du Lac still being by far the best in my opinion. Brookner's writing can be quite melancholic; reality bites in her novels, and she sees no need to deliver us to a requisite happy ending. Although that can make her work a little depressive at times to read, at the same time there is an honesty to her approach that I much admire.

In The Bay of Angels, the protagonist Zoe is in her twenties and an only child of a single parent. She's cautiously delighted for her mother when she unexpectedly marries again later on in life and moves to Nice, enabling her own professional and personal life to develop as she discovers a new life of independence in London. However, an unexpected tragedy occurs which forces the path of Zoe's life as the parenting roles reverse.

It's a story not dressed up to be anything other than what it is - a tale of sad circumstances that snatch away life's choices. Interestingly, when I read of Brookner's own life there are clearly fictionalised echoes of her own experience in this novel, as she never married and cared for her parents throughout her life. Her forte was in developing characters who are on the outside looking in. This deep introspection isn't for everyone, and for this reason The Bay of Angels will not appeal to the masses. However, I do enjoy this sense of realism in Brookner's writing, so although this won't be a favourite read of the year I'm glad I read it nonetheless.

3.5 stars - bleak yet powerfully honest. ( )

It's always a pleasure to read Anita Brookner. This is a great one.

Carefully wrought prose, like setting ornaments on a shelf in a just so manner.
It is the story of a young woman's entrance into adulthood told in the first person. Her passivity and determined naivete are irritating, especially in the context of her constant assertions that she is an independent and emancipated woman. She is completely dependent on, and constantly seeks, paternalistic oversight of some sort, and yet rarely or only obliquely acknowledges that reliance.
Some of the scenes were too contrived and jarringly unbelievable, such as the mother's hospitalisation, and the daughter's drifting helplessness. But the scenes in the Residence Saint Therese, especially the first scene, were wonderful. They were precise acute observations of the players and their roles in a nursing home.
Since this was my first novel by Brookner, I'm not sure if this claustrophobically precise style of writing is her own, or if it was the voice of the narrator. I'm looking forward to comparing it with another one of her novels. ( )