She had been in her brief existence two distinctly different beings, and one of these was the creature she was before and the other the creature she had become after reading the works of Marcel Proust. No, but really; she wasn’t joking. From this experience she’d emerged with all manner of extensions, reinforcements, renewals of her entire nervous system—indeed she might say that she’d been endowed with a perfectly new apparatus for apprehending the vibrations of other people’s souls. She was saying this most awkwardly, she knew, but she often wondered if we sufficiently realized the effect that Proust had had upon our awareness of one another, for whether we liked it or not, we were forced to take about with us wherever we went this extraordinary apparatus, recording accurately a thousand little matters of which we had not formerly been aware…

Isabel Bolton is, hands down, one of The Greats; however, she’s been horrifically buried, neglected, and all but forgotten. Bolton’s the direct descendent of Henry James, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and in the same textual genealogy as Elizabeth Bowen and Kay Boyle.

Her descriptions in this collection of short novels—of interior lives amid the clamor of an ever-changing world, in the glare of Manhattan’s myriad streetlights and social scenes, and of the very real horrors of aging and becoming more aware that the world (the city) will go on without you—are so incredibly incisive and heart-rending to read, to cherish, to admire.  

Do your part in unburying Bolton if the modernist lineage above is your cuppa.… (meer)

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proustitute | Apr 2, 2023 |

Many Mansions door Isabel Bolton

Elegant writing which put me in mind of Virginia Woolf.
It's the early 1950s and as 84-year old Margaret Sylvester looks out of her New York apartment, where she lives in genteel quasi-poverty, she reflects on her life, and on the memoir she once wrote. She recalls being raised in an aristocratic 19th century household...an affair, a child she was otr allowed to keep. And later moving on with her own life, immersing herself in social activism, the friendships and the changing backdrop of society as Victorian mores give way to the Bright Young Things, and later yet to the outbreak of WW2.
Against the changing world, she recalls her first love, and later people who surface in her life, from the troublesome lodger to a young man in straitened circumstances whom she has just befriended... And momentary impressions and recollections flit across her memory- flowers, the seasons, a beautiful party she hosted...
I found this slow to get into but it definitely grows on you as you get into the character.… (meer)

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starbox | Nov 11, 2018 |

Do I Wake Or Sleep? door Isabel Bolton

36 hours in the life of a minor writer on the New York scene. Europe is about to erupt into World War II. A young friend of the writer, a charming young woman who is more adventuress than not, has a quarter-Jewish child who is caught in Europe and an older male novelist (who doesn't have the money) is willing to go to any lengths to bribe her out. The whole story is bounded by alcohol-fueled lunches, dinners and parties and when a small but violent incident occurs, the world of the two older novelists is seriously fractured. This was an interesting book, but the main character is somewhat ambivalent and a good minority of the text is taken up with impressionist ramblings which I wasn't that interested in.… (meer)

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Bjace | 1 andere bespreking | Sep 22, 2014 |

New York Mosaic: Three Novels: Do I Wake or Sleep /… door Isabel Bolton

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pszolovits | 1 andere bespreking | Feb 3, 2021 |

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