Shirley Kossick
UNDUE INFLUENCE by Anita Brookner (Viking)
This is Anita Brookner’s 19th novel and, not unexpectedly, it ushers one into the highly discriminating mind of its solitary female protagonist. Claire Pitt is 29, unmarried, recently orphaned and in the process of losing her job in a second-hand bookshop.
Like all the women – and the occasional man – who occupy Brookner territory, Claire seems unconnected to society: she has no relatives and only one friend. When Martin Gibson enters this forlorn ambit, she sees a chance to break out of her circumscribed state and brings to bear what she mistakenly regards as the “undue influence” of the title.
Though some critics have accused Brookner of writing the same book over and over, this is only superficially true. There are subtle differences of character and introspection which make reading each of her books a unique experience, like listening to a fine composer’s variations on a theme.
THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Bank (Viking)
Since the phenomenal success of Bridget Jones’s Diary, there has been a spate of novels about the longings – and sometimes biological panic – of the thirtysomething single woman. Melissa Bank’s book falls loosely into this category, with its witty protagonist, Jane, and its episodic record of her amours from 14 to her 30s.
The quality of the writing, however, not least its poignancy, raises the book to a higher rung of the literary ladder. The structure, too, distinguishes it from near-siblings: five linked stories concentrate on Jane’s prowess while two others focus on different heroines.
The title story – last in the collection – finds Jane genuinely in love but with her spontaneous personality hobbled by friends’ admonitions to follow The Rules. This refers to an earnest “how-to” book subtitled Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right (1995).
In part a satirical comment on all self- help books and on this dating manual in particular, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing quotes edifying advice in its epigraphs (“A Girl Scout is clean in thought, word and deed”). But Jane’s vitality and honesty will not be stifled, and the result is an entertaining book which touches on some potent truths about contemporary mores.
ISLAND by Jane Rogers (Little, Brown)
The fractious narrator of Island was abandoned at birth and was shunted from one foster home to another. Now 28, Nikki swears revenge on the mother to whose “criminal neglect” she attributes all her mistakes, suffering and inadequacies.
Tracing the mother to a remote Hebridean island proves simpler than expected, but actually killing the disturbingly witchlike and elderly woman is more complicated.
Jane Rogers, one of Britain’s finest contemporary writers, has yet to gain the recognition she deserves. Though the plot of Island is fairly straightforward and the characters virtually limited to three, Rogers imbues her writing with enormous tension. As the momentum builds, the narrative gathers an emotional force and moral profundity which belie its surface simplicity.
FLANDERS by Patricia Anthony (Black Swan)
Told in the form of letters from a young American volunteer in an English regiment, Flanders is Patricia Anthony’s seventh novel. It received widespread praise on publication in hardback last year, eliciting comparison with All Quiet on the Western Front. The personal voice of the letter-writer ensures an immediacy and verisimilitude which also invites comparison with Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy, especially in its depicting of individual pain and the horrors of trench warfare.