DollyAnita Brookner has been called "one of the finest novelists of her generation" by The New York Times and "a latter-day Jane Austen" by Publishers Weekly. Now, in Dolly, Brookner continues to explore in her masterful way the changing truths of identity and relationships in the lives of women, with this brilliant portrait of a family. Mild and self-effacing, Jane Manning is ill prepared for the eruption into her life of her glamorous aunt, Dolly. Married to Jane's uncle, Dolly swirls into the Manning home, and, with her perfumed mink and bored laugh, makes it clear that her ways are not their ways, are not in fact anybody else's ways. Dolly becomes an object of both fascination and dread, and as Jane studies her aunt, she realizes that she and Dolly have absolutely nothing in common - nothing, except the fact that they are members of the same family. Jane begins to suspect that Dolly is not the woman she appears to be, that her elegant life is not as charming as she wants people to think. Then Dolly's husband dies, and Jane finds that she and her aunt are fated to be yoked together in uneasy social and financial harness. Brilliantly written, acutely observed, Dolly is Anita Brookner at her best, an elegant and illuminating exploration of how realities change, how power and perceptions alter over the course of a family's life. |
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Adèle Rougier afternoon Anita Brookner Annie Annie's asked aware Battersea Park beautiful bedroom bridge Brussels Christmas coffee cold comfort course dark darling daughter David Copperfield dear dinner Dolly read Dolly's Dolphin Square doubt drawing-room dressed Edgware Road Etty expected eyes face fact Fanny father feel felt flat friends funny girl girl grandmother hair hand Harry Hotel du Lac husband Jane John Pickering knew live look lunch Maresfield Gardens Margaret and Wendy Marigold marriage married Miss Lawlor morning mother never night once parents perhaps pleasure presence Prince of Wales realised Saint-Raphaël seemed sense silent slightly Sloane Square smile stay telephone thing thought tion Toni Toni's took turned wait Wales Drive walk Wigmore Hall window woman women worry