I have come to the conclusion that Anita Brookner is beyond measure a gifted novelist who deserves her prizes. Here again is another example of her extraordinary gift to extract the elements that underlie and influence the life paths of her characters. "Brief Lives" is one of her best from my point of view.
Her detached and melancholic writing entrances me, because this style lets her reveal the nobility at the heart of her principal characters.

This book was so well written I like it much more for the writing than the content. The details of a woman's life and her inner thoughts presented a character study, rather than a plot driven work. I also found the protagonist's knowledge of most characters motives and feelings to be interesting, but not necessarily correct. I was pleased that the main character was able to devise a life for herself that fit her needs, but sorry that she was unable to build meaningful relationships. ( )

Vidas breves cuenta la historia de Fay, de sus discretas alegrías e ilusiones desde que, en los años cuarenta, abandonó su modesta carrera de cantante por un matrimonio muy alejado del romanticismo que predicaban las canciones y películas de la época. Una vida en busca de amor y de verdaderos afectos en la que una extravagante mujer, la glamurosa y egocéntrica Julia, acaba convirtiéndose en una influencia sutil pero constante. Ya en la madurez, en un mundo nuevo que parece haberlas dejado atrás, los lazos que unen a Fay y Julia no son los del secreto inconfesable que se ocultan, ni los de las horas compartidas, sino más bien los del temor a la soledad.

Un magistral ejercicio de elegancia y delicadeza, lleno de ironía, sobre los compromisos que adquirimos con los demás y con las decisiones que tomamos a lo largo de los años. Anita Brookner, ganadora del premio Booker y una de las grandes escritoras británicas de finales del siglo xx, logró con Vidas breves una de sus mejores novelas, un delicado retrato de unas vidas marcadas por la nostalgia y las emociones reprimidas.

Definitely one of the most boring books I have ever read.

Sometimes, I'm okay with very little action and a lot of introspection. The woman - Fay - was just far too introspective and depressing for me. And she went on and on and on about her unhappy life and how she just basically gave up and resigned herself to a life of loneliness. Not to mention she had some masochistic wish to be friends with a woman named Julia who was clearly a Bitch with a capital B.

Most of us would have dumped Julia long ago. Preferably in the Thames. (Did I mention this takes place in London?

Fay went on and on and on about her middle age and her old age and how it was just the way with women of her day and age. I believe she was born in the late 1920's. At some point, I wanted to slap her and tell her to "get a life".

I finished it, though. Finished the book as if performing penance. ( )

Amazing is the word for this book. In less than 300 pages,
Fay perfectly conveys, in first person, her complex, conflictual, inexplicable adult life. Although supposedly a novel, her story is believable as any memoir I have read; I am thinking she continues to exist somewhere. Actually she does because there are many Fays that we may know. I have not even yet mentioned her odd relationship with Julia. Reading more Anita Brookner is a must for me. ( )