France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Low Countries. Britain? London, of course, and its very immediate environs, along with cautious excursions as far afield as Bournemouth and Blakeney (wherever that is). This is Brooknerland. It's a surprise to find Brookner in America, in the last chapter of A Family Romance . Jane Manning, now a celebrated author, visits women's colleges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. This is principally an opportunity for Brookner to discuss feminism, and her own misgivings about it, and also to bring in a contrast with the life of Dolly, the aunt who is the novel's focus and with whom the novel ends. But Brookner has fun along the way, studiedly presenting American speech patterns ('Janet's copper beech. I confess to a little envy: I haven't one of my own.') and giving us glimpses of politically correct playgroups and guys in jeans doing their own ironing. The gracious campuses are well described - lakes, trees, t...
'I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.'