One of my bookstore book-shopping rituals when I am outside the U.S. is to scan the shelves for copies of books by the publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions.
They are easy to spot, since every Fitzcarraldo Editions fiction book has an identical cover design of a matte blue cover with plain white text (in a custom font) of the title and author’s name. As a London-based publisher, copies are relatively rare in the U.S., but common in the U.K. and Canada, which is where I recently bought “Brian” by Jeremy Cooper, specifically at the spectacular Munro’s Books in Victoria, British Columbia.
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Many of the nearly two dozen titles Fitzcarraldo Editions publishes each year are reprints of classic out-of-print works of experimental literature, but it also publishes contemporary writers, including several books by Cooper, a British art historian and overall polymath of artistic expression.
“Brian” is a seemingly simple story about the title character, a middle-aged man who, as the novel opens, is living a deliberately constrained life so as to avoid discomfort or upset. Cooper describes Brian as “handicapped by never knowing what to say to anyone. Within a group of people he felt pushed to the periphery, quickly aware that nobody much minded whether he turned up or not.”
It appears we are being set up for a story of a marginal character, an object of sympathy, perhaps who is going to be saved by a special someone who recognizes Brian’s special gift and changes him from the ugly duckling into the swan he was always meant to be. But “Brian” defies such cliches. While there is a growing swell of emotional connection to the character as we go, Brian will remain utterly himself throughout.
To the extent that he is “saved,” it is through a discovery of a deep love of film, fostered through what becomes almost daily attendance of screenings at the British Film Institute. To Brian, films are not instructive models for living but exist purely as aesthetic objects and experiences that can be appreciated entirely in and of themselves.
Brian becomes one of the “buffs,” a group of men — many of them also awkward — who meet after the screenings and discuss what they’ve seen. Brian retains his discomfort with others, but over time as his experiences with film accrue, he contributes and understands that the other buffs appreciate what he has to offer.
Brian’s life independent of his interest in film is programmatic and constrained: work as a clerk in a government office, a daily lunch at a café with a friendly proprietor, a trip to the laundromat once a fortnight. When the laundromat is unexpectedly closed, he is thrown, his careful plotting for a controlled life suddenly insufficient.
Thoughts of happiness or the pursuit of more than his comfortable subsistence do not occur to Brian. He has wondered if he wouldn’t be better off jumping into the Thames, but once he has film, these thoughts subside.
Much of the novel is a recounting from Brian’s perspective of hundreds of films he has seen, most of which I have not, and yet Cooper manages to create an intimacy with the interior of Brian’s mind that kept me interested throughout. The storytelling is nearly continuous, moving through dozens of years, taking Brian to retirement age and beyond.
There are incidents and challenges, an accident that lands Brian in the hospital, and references to a childhood in Ireland that seems to have marked his adult life, but we always return to the movies.
“Brian” is a portrait of how even the smallest life can be expansive if you find your specific object of interest.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Coin” by Yasmin Zaher
2. “The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong
3. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe
4. “Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah
5. “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans
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— Hillary S., Hainesville (on behalf of her book club)
Forty years this book club has been meeting. I better not blow this one. I’m going with a complex story of marriage and duty, “Morningside Heights” by Joshua Henkin.
1. “The Typing Lady” by Ruth Ozeki
2. “Vigil” by George Saunders
3. “Whistler” by Ann Patchett
4. “The Land and Its People” by David Sedaris
5. “London Falling” by Patrick Radden Keefe
— Robert M., Chicago
For Robert, I’m recommending Marilynne Robinson’s classic, “Housekeeping.”
1. “True Grit” by Charles Portis
2. “The Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain
3. “The Frenchmen” by Emily Eakin
4. “A Libertarian Walks into a Bear” by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
5. “The Dog’s Gaze” by Thomas W. Laquer
— Steve G., Oak Park
I think Steve will enjoy the off-kilter humor of Patrick deWitt’s “The Librarianist.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected].
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.