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<title> Falling Slowly By Anita Brookner </title>
In this essay I will discuss the novel Falling Slowly written by Anita Brookner. First I will give a brief summary of the book. Than I will explain what I think about the book, taking theme and characterazation into account. I will also comment on interesting passages in the text that are relevant to my analysis.

The book is about two sisters named Miriam and Beatrice. They both live in London, leading extremely empty lives. Miriam has a love-affair with a married man, who not only cheats on his wife, but also on Miriam. Beatrice is a pianist who is forced to retire, and when she does she notices that she is not feeling well. The sisters have difficulties in communicating both with each other and with other people, and it seems as though they are not exactly eager to do so either.

One of the themes in this novel is communication. Miriam is complaining about not having any friends to talk to "...she wished for company, and had failed to find it" (p.130). Still, it seems as though she is not trying hard enough. She gives very little of herself and are not even able to communicate properly with her own sister. One thing that is a little confusing is that these two sisters are suppose to be very close, but still they do not act as if they are. They avoid each others company and when they are actually enjoying spending time together they do not talk about things that matters, such as love and life, the thing they are both concerned with.

As I mentioned, Miriam is alone, but she seems to be so bothered by having other people present that there is no wonder why she is alone. On page 130 she tells the reader about the new Italian woman living in her building. This woman apparently leaves garbage on the landing outside Miriam's appartment and it becomes clear to her that she has to move "if she wanted to avoid this daily detritus". Everything is bothering her, she is not satisfied with anything in her life and it is with amazement that the reader sees how little she does to change her own situation. It is as though she loves to complain while leading this boring life of hers, only waiting for death or something else to reliese her. What she has not yet realised is that nobody else will change her life for her.

Another theme in the novel is love. It is a strange kind of love, because the two sisters expect to be given love without giving any in return. The reader begin to see that these human beings and the rest of the characters in this book might never find love, because they do not love themselves enough to be able to love somebody else. There is a childish sense of love and it becomes clear to the reader when references to Jane Eyre come up. When the two sisters discuss which of the two men Jane had to chose from was the "better man" it is obvious to the reader that these two women live in a phantasy-world. Miriam meets a man called Tom Rivers and here is what beatrice thinks about that: "If Miriam could be persuaded to look on him more kindly than Jane had looked on her Mr Rivers, then something might be saved. But Beatrice knew that in this matter Miriam was like herself, though she denied it. Mr Rochester, preferably undamaged..." There is no such thing as an "undamaged" Mr Rochester, because if he was he would not be Mr Rochester. ".., would be the one to seek out..." (p.118) This talk about who is the better man to chose comes back in Miriam's thoughts about Tom on page 152: "For he was the better man: of that there was no doubt." The sisters see things as black and white, good or bad. In a way they are like children, not having realised that there are also grey spots in life.

Characteraization plays a great part in this text.The author of the book succeeds in picuring the most boring lives imaginable. In Beatrice and miriam she has manage to convey two shallow human beings whose only concerns are themselves. Being self-absorbed with feelings and thoughts from the past, they are stereotypes of those people you are lucky not to meet. There are really constant references to the past in this novel. One example is on page 131 when Miriam is having trouble with entertaining herself: "... books no longer detained in the same way. As girls she and Beatrice had read voraciously, seeking alternatives to their restricted lives". Then she goes on complaining once again about the life she is uncapable of dealing with. She is bitter, because she has not loved before until nine months ago: "Until nine months ago she had not known true love, and because of that she was marked for life." It is this hopelessness again, poisioning the entire story an making Miriam's life even more miserable.

Simon, the man Miriam is seeing, has caused her to be totally obsessed with him. When he is away with his wife she decides to go on a trip, but it is not for her own sake she is doing this, but it is so that she will appear to have a life. In paris, she has certain tasks to perform and "she would then be free to spend the time exactly as she wished, which was to count the hours until returning home." What kind of a person is this? Dwelling in her own misery and despair, not lifting a finger to change her currant position. The reader is given a dull impression of the whole thing, and is rather depressed than up-lifted when returning to reality. The reader wants to shake Miriam and wake her up, because she does not appear to be a human being, but rather a zombie, waiting for a happy ending (and so is the reader), not hoping but waiting. She has lost all hope and this is probarly why she is always referring back to her and Beatrice's childhood, because it was the only time when they were still alive, although that too was nothing to remember. "Not for the first time, she felt discomfort on behalf of the poor remnants of her own past." She explains that "Her parents she no longer considered with anything other than tired irony." (p.96)

Aside from the aspects of the book that I have already mentioned it contains long, winding sentences and there is a constant jumping back and forth between the present and the past. This tactic gives the reader a feeling of standing still in the story. Nothing happens for what seems to be a long period of time and this only adds to the frustration the reader feels. 

This book about the two sisters, Miriam and Beatrice, does not give the reader a pleasant experience. The themes of the book are communication and love, but these themes are conveyed to the reader in a very boring and depressing way. Throughout the entire novel you wait for something positive to happen, but it never does. Brookner has concentrated very much on characterazation and unfortunetly has not done a very good job here either. She has pictured dull people living in a dull city, leading dull lives and if this was what she wanted to do with this novel, I would say she has succeeded.
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