I found Altered States a verypowerful and moving novel of love,loss and despair.It conveysan aura of melancholy in thethe way the characters in the bookaccept their lot in life. The book's tale of Allen Sherwood's unhappy marriage and his persual of the elusive Sarahis both engrossing and illuminating.The one drawback I found (as mentioned in a prior review on this board)is why Allenis so drawn to Sarah since she is so flighty and unsympathetic. The writing in the book is first rate with beautifully drawn passagesof loss and seperation.Thisnovel makes me eager to read more of Anita Brookner's work.

Alan Sherwood, to the unknowing observer, would appear the typical, traditional bachelor- staid, set in his ways, a traditionalist....pompous, even! Yet Alan has loved, been briefly married and then widowed, and has been subject to a passion strong enough to have dominated and directed much of his life.
This is a book about human relationships...about the mother son relationship, about husband wife relationship, about friendship...and, of course, about romantic love. It is a story with no happy ending, for the characters, as in real life, firmly refuse to be puppets to an overall stringpuller, displaying a will and direction each to this own. Above all, this is a book about growing old, the stage of life each of us will reach, if we are lucky, if we are careful, and which each of us must decide how to handle.
I enjoy novels written in the first person, and I found Anita Brookner's decison to write from the male viewpoint a satisfying way to have this story told. I related to Alan, and to his mother,and to poor Angela, and to upright, so correct Aubrey and to desperate Jenny. even to the feckless, willful, soul-destroying Sara. In fact, I could identify them from among my aquaintances right now..or point them out in the street tomorrow.
I see that another reviewer complains that the story and characters are unresolved....but that is also the point of this tale.. the people in our lives don't always accept the roles we've assigned them...and often, if they do accept, they don't play their parts as well as we'd like....
But life's like that, isn't it....doesn't always `go by the book'....not like a a Mills & Boon, anyway...
But for a feel of the real thing, read `Altered States'. And read it slowly....it's too beautifully crafted a novel for skimming!

Robin Knight

Altered States continues to haunt me two weeks after I finished it. The main character, an intelligent and prosperous British attorney, encounters a sexual obsession that has the tenacity of inexorable fate. The story is told entirely from his point of view, and it's the reader's job to decide how credible his point of view is. Brookner's writing is precise and cutting. While her conclusions about human existence are shocking, she treats her flawed characters tenderly.

I'm reminded of the old Hitchcock TV shows and of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. It's a short book, very much worth reading.