One of several passages from Look at Me that I copied into my notebook:
“I could not, somehow, make contact with any familiar emotion. As I lingered in front of a lighted window, apparently beguiled by a pair of burgundy leather shoes, I could only identify a feeling of exclusion. I felt as if the laws of the universe no longer applied to me, since I was outside the normal frames of reference. A biological nonentity, to be phased out. And somewhere, intruding helplessly and to no avail into my consciousness, the anger of the underdog, plotting bloody revolution, plotting revenge.”
Anita Brookner, Look at Me
Time's Flow Stemmed 
Reblogged this on The Blog of Disquiet and commented:
I have not read this but I should be preparing myself, if this quote is any indication. I’ve only read one Brookner novel, A Start in Life, and felt that to read any more required some preparation on my part, for the quiet passages and the quiet devastation they bring on, like this one.
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Im planning to read Bay of Angel’s next, which I’m told is bleaker and more devastating.
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I’ve been interested in your posts on Brookner. I think I’ve read all her books. They are hermetic in the extreme — or that’s my reaction. So contained and so quiet and yet so devastating.
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Your description sums up Look at Me, the only Brookner I’ve read, very well. I expect I’ll read them all, very much my sort of writer.
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