Altered States

Alan Sherwood, to the unknowing observer, would appear the typical, traditional bachelor- staid, set in his ways, a traditionalist....pompous, even! Yet Alan has loved, been briefly married and then widowed, and has been subject to a passion strong enough to have dominated and directed much of his life.

This is a book about human relationships...about the mother son relationship, about husband wife relationship, about friendship...and, of course, about romantic love. It is a story with no happy ending, for the characters, as in real life, firmly refuse to adhere to the parts one might write for them. Above all, this is a book about growing old, the stage of life each of us will reach, if we are lucky, if we are careful, and which each of us must decide how to handle.
I enjoy novels written in the first person, and I found Anita Brookner's decison to write from the male viewpoint a satisfying way to have this story told. I related to Alan, and to his mother,and to poor Angela, and to upright, so correct Aubrey and to desperate Jenny. even to the feckless, willful, soul-destroying Sara. In fact, I could identify them from my memory-store of acquaintances, now...or point them out in the street tomorrow. These people are very real, with motives not necessarily admirable, with normal human , fears, vanities and weaknesses. There is little reproach in this rather sad tale...rather a kind of resignation to inevitability- a resignation which becomes, which becomes, for many of us, the self-discipline which gets us from day to day and year to year.

I see that another reviewer complains that the story and characters are unresolved....as I said, the people in our lives don't always accept the roles we've assigned them...and often, if they do accept, they don't play their parts as well as we'd like....
But life's like that, isn't it....doesn't always `go by the book'....not like a Mills & Boon, anyway...
But for a feel of the real thing, read `Altered States'.And read it slowly....it's too beautifully crafted a novel for skimming!

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