Family and Friends

by Anita Brookner

Book Overview

In an ambitious departure from her usual form, Anita Brookner expands her canvas in Family and Friends to create a richly textured novel about the life of a wealthy Jewish family in London, focusing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394546164
• ISBN13: 9780394546162
• Release Date: September 1985
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 187 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An atmospheric novel

In this novel Mrs Brookner portrays the Dorn family. The head of the family, Mr Dorn, died sometime ago but there is Sofka the mother who is contemplating a photo album in which there are pictures of her children's weddings. She is a languid woman with few friends and deeply devoted to the members of her family. She constantly worries what will happen to the lives of her four children, how they will deal with the world and the world with them. There are two daughters, Mireille - Mimi - and Babette - Betty. The former is to marry Mr Lautner, the man who practically runs the family factory in London, quite late in life and the latter hurriedly marries Max Markus in Paris, the son of a film producer and they subsequently move to Beverly Hills. Sofka's elder son Frederick, a sympathetic but far from hard-working man finds his way into the hotel business on the Italian Riviera by marrying Evie. The younger son Alfred on the other hand is an austere man who is sternly devoted to the family business at the expense of his private life. The characters are well drawn although the plot does not offer much in terms of excitement or suspense. In this sense it is a true family and friends novel: people meeting, sons and daughters making their way into the world and a mother affectionately remembering her children's youth.

Great depth in writing

I've read most of Ms.Brookners books and found this one to be typical of her great writing skills.This may have been the best one I've read-just so poignant I couldn't put it down.I'm sure I'll read it again.