by Anita Brookner
The protagonist of this small, modest, almost flawless British novel is a quiet scholar who has devoted her career to the study of Balzac. Her mother is a beautiful, brittle actress whose teeth aren't good enough for television and who one day just stops acting and takes to her bed, to whiskey and to sleeping pills. The heroine's father has inherited a rare book business to which he is indifferent. And in a cast of marvelous characters, none is more frightening or funny than a housekeeper who moves in and takes over everyone's lives. There is no happy ending. Indeed, a quickened recital of terrible events at the book's climax is distressing. Otherwise, this first novel by a University of London art history teacher is entirely satisfying. (Linden, $11.95)
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