This morning I read Anita Brookner’s Incidents in the Rue Langier. This isn’t a book I ever would have chosen on my own, but I swapped a bunch of books with a friend, and this one was in the pile.
After her mother’s death, Maffy discovers a mysterious notebook and a silk kimono. Baffled by how these items fit into her very reserved mother’s life, she invents a story explaining how her parents met and came to marry.
The small blurb on the cover claims Brookner is “funny, vivid and devastating in her observations.” Hmmm. Vivid, yes. But funny? Maybe they read a different book, because I was at no time amused. Depressed is more like it. This was a grim book, focused on the perceived proper behavior of an earlier time, as well as duty and unrequited love. It was a quick read, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it.
