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Starting Out in the Evening

by Brian Morton

3.49 · rating details · 452 ratings · 91 reviews

Leonard Schiller is a novelist in his seventies, a second-string but respectable talent who produced only a small handful of books. Heather Wolfe is an attractive graduate student in her twenties. She read Schiller’s novels when she was growing up and they changed her life. When the ambitious Heather decides to write her master’s thesis about Schiller’s work and sets out t...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published October 1st 2007 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published 1997)

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Mar 28, 2011

Yulia rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Yulia by: Sherry Keller

Shelves: writers-on-writing

This thoughtful and intelligent novel presents us with three individuals at different points in their lives: the first, Leonard Schiller, a 71-year-old author who, after two heart operations, knows he is close to death but is still determined to finish his last novel, even as his four previous works have gone out of print; the second, his 39-year-old daughter, Ariel, a dancer who has become an exercise instructor and is hoping to find fulfillment in becoming a parent finally; the third, Heather ...moreThis thoughtful and intelligent novel presents us with three individuals at different points in their lives: the first, Leonard Schiller, a 71-year-old author who, after two heart operations, knows he is close to death but is still determined to finish his last novel, even as his four previous works have gone out of print; the second, his 39-year-old daughter, Ariel, a dancer who has become an exercise instructor and is hoping to find fulfillment in becoming a parent finally; the third, Heather Wolfe, a 24-year-old graduate student looking to launch her career as a literary critic in New York and writing her thesis on the author who inspired her early pursuit of freedom. (There is a fourth character whose thoughts we also follow but I won't identify, as this individual enters the book only in the latter half.)

Morton is a master at getting into each of the character's minds, though they're of different generations, race, sex, and preoccupation, and he manages to make them each incredibly sympathetic even as they frustrate us and challenge our patience.

Even as the book itself weaves quotes from great artists into the fabric of the conversation on how to best live one's life, though never in a pedantic or obtrusive manner, it constantly presents the reader with its own passages worth recording and mulling over: on pursuing a creative life, having fun, striving, and struggling. This is a book whose ideas are worth contemplating, even if the plot urges us to speed through it to find out what happens next: my favorite combination.

What if the work you create inspires lessons that you don't necessarily intend? Is it worth creating if the product of your efforts will never be shared with others? What should drive us in our career: recognition, posterity, enjoyment, discipline, morals? What ought we to do if furthering our own goals means sacrificing the goals of others? At what point is it degrading to seek the approval of our mentors?

Though the word can make me queasy, it is true that this is an immensely tender book. Just don't read it in a car or plane if that unsettles you. (less)

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May 28, 2008

Linera rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: academic-setting

Almost pitch perfect. A fine, well-balanced portrait of an aging writer, his daughter, friends, and a young brash woman who has been influenced by his work and wants to write her thesis on him. I read it for pacing, and for character development.

The male characters, especially the writer, Leonard, are fully developed. I felt that the two main women, the daughter Ariel and the student Heather, were not as clear, perhaps because as a reader I never inhabited their physical bodies the ...more

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Oct 05, 2008

Pamela Pickering rated it

· review of another edition

3 Stars, but just barely
This is a hard book to rate. There were several times when I just wanted to abandon it but then it just didn't quite put me off too much. But at other times I just felt very turned off as with one statement, "When he stood, he looked at his gray, fat penis, a smoked out stub of an antique cigar." Now why do I need to know that? I suppose if I were a man I would understand a little bit more of this fascination with a certain anatomical part but I'm not a ma...more

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Mar 03, 2008

Timothy rated it

· review of another edition

I read this book when it came out ten years ago, then I saw a recent review of a movie made from it. (The review didn't mention the novel.) I saw the movie (with Frank Langella and Lili Taylor), which was quite wonderful, but thought it must have changed the novel radically. On rereading the novel, however, I discovered that the movie stuck pretty close to the plot of the novel, while dramatizing its story: graduate student in English literature (Heather Wolfe) decides to write her masters thesi...more

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Nov 24, 2008

Marguerite rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

Brian Morton's book is a gem. The characters, though flawed, are well drawn. (Ariel was the exception. She seemed a bit of a loopy stereotype.) Most of the action of this book takes place on the human interior, a place Morton has clearly explored, since the reflections are dead-on. He raises questions about art and life and what gives meaning to both. And he offers an array of answers, always with compassion. Morton's writing never gets in the way of his ideas, but it can be memorable, too. Ther...more

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May 25, 2011

John rated it

· review of another edition

A touching story of an aging author (Leonard Schiller) and the young graduate student, Heather Wolfe, who chooses to write her thesis about Schiller's works. Heather is drawn to Schiller based on her association with the characters and themes of his first two books; however, as their relationship develops, Heather is perplexed by how seeminlgy different Leonard's ordinary life is from his characters. As the story develops, Leonard is faced with feelings of infatuation with a much younger woman w...more

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Jun 09, 2009

Pornwan rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I watched the film adaption before reading the book. The film, though rather well made, does not give enough clues over Heather's motives for seducing Leonard so aggressively, whether she does desire him, or simply just tries to build his trust in her since she strikes me as a manipulator from the start. My own interpretation is that she does desire her imaginary version of him, the body of a virile intense man who views freedom as a choice one has to make no matter who pay the price for it. The...moreI watched the film adaption before reading the book. The film, though rather well made, does not give enough clues over Heather's motives for seducing Leonard so aggressively, whether she does desire him, or simply just tries to build his trust in her since she strikes me as a manipulator from the start. My own interpretation is that she does desire her imaginary version of him, the body of a virile intense man who views freedom as a choice one has to make no matter who pay the price for it. The next day I ran to a bookstore to find the book and finished it in one go. The book confirms my thought. As manipulative as she may seem,she is just a classic case of a person, who has developed passion for books and tends to identify herself with a character in a story that reflects her own situation at a particular point in time. She feels the man behind the character has lived in her inner thought and speak it so vividly. Over the years, she had built and fallen in love with her own version of Leonard. Growing up, she had naively and shallowly believed that she could revive his soulful youth and transform it into a creative energy for his final book.

Her aggressive pursue produces a destructive outcome that affects so many lives even her own. She finds out he is not a courageous man of her imagination, but instead a mammoth that is too old to adjust to any kinds of transformation. His daughter is even more disappointing, a shallow but kind-hearted being whom she dismisses as not belonging to the Leonard-Heather intellectual world. Before long she begins to see him differently, or more accurately his true self. He is no longer an emblem of artistic dignity, but of a stupid unconformity. The disappointment drives her away from him.

The familiar form of expectation is then passed along to Leonard like a disease. It does not take that long for him to fall in love with her, the kind of love that brings him back the passion he lost with the death of his wife. She does come to revive his soul with her youthful determination, only to take it away later. It was not a deliberate cruelty. She is full of guilt. But she opts for the choice all of Leonard's heroines would have made, a courage to live her own life. Her choice is however made when he does not have much time to live. He no longer has the same sympathetic comprehension for her as he did for his heroines (based on his wife) years ago. And that is why he slaps her in the face for disrupting his ordinary life.

The book displays how unmet expectations affect different people of varrying levels of fragility and ages. Heather moves on quickly to another mentor, Sandra, only to be disappointed again, after Leonard failed her completely. She is still young, hopeful and has surplus energy that can be drawn in time of pain. Leonard, on the contrary, is left devastated beyond repair, physically and emotionally. His remaining bit of self-esteem is temporarily bolstered by her and then perpetually crushed by her.

Another noteworthy character in this book is Leonard's daughter, Ariel. Through Heather's eyes, she is the polar opposite of her father. But in fact, they exhibit similar potrayal of underachiver. Like her father, she had once dreamt of being the master of her craft. She was once a hopeful dancer. But life has shrinked her into just an aerobic teacher, a career she despises due to a shallow brainless stereotype people tend to build around it. She is one of the classic examples of children who fail to live up to their parents' legacy. The world, even they themselves, always give them cruel judgment. Her prime hope is to have a child before turning 40, a hope that Heather dismisses as not worthy of her heroe's daughter. But who can blame her? It is the only hope a fragile woman of her age has left to look forward to. No matter how hard her father tries to convince that she is still young and full of capacity, she still cannot bring herself to believe that. She thinks her life would be over soon unless she produces a child. The reason is he himself is not in the position to comfort her since he in fact is the mirror image of her, the once promising author whose creativity has deteriorated with time.

This is the kind of book that I will revisit again and again. It potrays the damages the unfulfilled hopes do to human at different ages with subtlety. Those who are still young and optimistic and have not been much damaged, like Heather, are not easily deterred by it. She still can gather her strength and move on to pursue her next goal. Leonard and his daugther, already aged and middle-aged, on the other hand, cannot bounce back quickly. Years of failed attempts and aging have taken away their energy and self-confidence, to the point that the memories of their earlier achievements no longer mean anything to them.
(less)

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May 03, 2010

Emily rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Some touching descriptions of interactions between the main character, an author in his 70s who only published four books, none of which did very well, and his daughter, a dance/exercise instructor in her 40s, had a ring of authenticity to them. The daughter's rekindling relationship with an old lover was sometimes interesting and sometimes just annoying - the fundamental differences of goals and desires that were the reason didn't work out the first time didn't just magically resolve! What a ...more

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Jan 17, 2010

Corry rated it

· review of another edition

This is a quiet little book, and it seems quite unimposing. However, I kept coming across small thoughts that really are quiet large in importance to one's life. My book has little yellow sticky notes flapping outside the edges.
A young woman writer visits an older man whose writing career is nearly at its end. He has never realized recognition, although he has made a living writing. She holds him in her soul as the man who knew her and wrote directly to her in his early books. Sh...more

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Aug 25, 2010

Nicole rated it

· review of another edition

The nutshell: An enthusiastic grad student (Heather) chooses to write her thesis on an aging author (Schiller) whose books have gone largely unrecognized. They strike up a tenuous and tender sort of friendship, at times almost romantic and at others far from it. Schiller's daughter, Ariel, is a focal point as well, with her childlike relationship with her father and her efforts to balance finding a partner she can potentially tolerate long-term with her desperate desire to have a child before sh...moreThe nutshell: An enthusiastic grad student (Heather) chooses to write her thesis on an aging author (Schiller) whose books have gone largely unrecognized. They strike up a tenuous and tender sort of friendship, at times almost romantic and at others far from it. Schiller's daughter, Ariel, is a focal point as well, with her childlike relationship with her father and her efforts to balance finding a partner she can potentially tolerate long-term with her desperate desire to have a child before she's too far out of her 30's.

Not the nutshell: I can't say enough how charmed I am by these characters. They're relatively self-aware--Schiller knows when he's being a pretentious bore but just can't help himself; Heather sees her own unkindness in the way her interest shifts so quickly from Schiller to Sandra but her ambition and enthusiasm keep her moving anyway. These characters are complicated, and their relationships with each other are complicated. Their interactions are messy and awkward and they struggle--and mostly fail--to say exactly what they mean exactly when they mean it. And I pretty much love them for it.

For all the fumbly awkwardness between the characters, the prose is remarkably smooth and lovely. Some bits of it struck me as beautifully worded physical observations, others as striking truths, and still others as sentences or phrases or paragraphs that couldn't be passed by without first being read aloud. Good fun.

The only thing here that I feel lukewarm about is the Ariel/Casey dynamic near the end. Don't get me wrong, they're great together and quirky enough to be tons of fun to read, but the baby question is so crucial to Ariel's vision of herself and her future that it bothers me a bit to leave it up in the air at the end. I think Casey might be warming to the idea, although I don't think he ever indicates this specifically (although his devotion to Ariel does kick up a notch in the last 50 pages or so, and I think at one point he intimates that he would do just about anything for her) but then the closing lines make me think that Ariel is learning to live with his refusal. Maybe I'm reading too much into both sides of this equation, but with all the other ends left varying degrees of open at the end, this particular one felt too unresolved for me.

Quotes, because quotes are awesome:
"Everything else passes away; that which you love remains. She had to believe this, even if she wasn't sure it was true."

"He was a writer. He knew that he'd keep going even if he were sure that nothing he wrote would ever be published again. He couldn't understand the world, couldn't live, without putting stories on paper."

"It was nine o'clock on a Saturday. She felt as if it were about three o'clock in the morning, and it certainly didn't feel like a Saturday. It felt like a day they didn't have a name for."

"His kisses were too rote; they were assembly-line kisses. She wanted complex kisses; she wanted each kiss to be a conversation."

Bonus quote that wins the Solid Advice award for the week:
"Don't make jokes that require research."

Different kind of nutshell: Quiet and sweetly complex story, lovely prose, great characters. Read it.
(less)

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Jul 11, 2010

Dianne rated it

· review of another edition

Not sure why this book spoke to me so much. Maybe because the main character is 71-years old, and I'm about to turn 70. At any rate, this isn't a plot-driven book...more of an exploration the internal musings of a man with work still to do at the end of his life, his reflections on his very happy marriage to a wife who died some years before, and his loving relationship with his somewhat eccentric 39-year-old daughter. Add to this a rather brash young student doing a master's thesis on the au...more

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Jan 17, 2010

Caroline Mckiernan rated it

· review of another edition

I loved this book because of the juxtaposition of the parent/daughter relationship of an intellectual and a non-intellectual...and the intersections that the two have together.

It is also a novel about love, dignity and disillusionment.

However, in the end, this novel is about hope and what is real, not what is impressive...and that's what I loved about it.

In the end, Dad is intellectual by adjective only, but mainly Dad, and the daughter, a "child woman"...more

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Apr 15, 2011

Allie Brown rated it

Maybe it was my high expectations and the fact that this book had been hyped to me, but I was disappointed. I didn't buy into the characters, for the most part. I like the character of Ariel, but the "main" character, Heather, was difficult for me to connect with and, to be honest, she annoyed me. The writing is lovely and that's part of what kept me interested. I liked reading about New York City and I enjoyed the contrast of Ariel and Heather's characters, but I'm hesitant to recomme...more

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Jan 11, 2012

Kat rated it

· review of another edition

This is the first novel by Brian Morton that I've read, I came to it via the movie. The novel tells the story of an old man whose life as a novelist has been only mildly successful and of his relationship with a young (female) graduate student who is doing her thesis on him. These themes--writing, aging, success or the lack thereof--are resonant ones for me, and I suspect that's why I raced through this novel in spite of its flaws. The prose, in particular, is extremely uneven and sometimes clic...more

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Sep 02, 2011

Joy H. marked it as watched-film-only · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, adapted-to-film, suggested-at-constant-reader-group

Added 4/13/2009
_Starting Out In the Evening_ by Brian Morton (first published 1997)

NOTE (9/2/11): The GR Constant Reader Group has invited the author of this book, Brian Morton, to have dinner with the CR group at their October-2011 Convention in NYC. See the following thread:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5255...
According to a post at the group, the date and place are:
Sunday, 10/16/11, dinner with Brian Morton: Rosa Mexicano at Lincoln Center (6:30-9 PM)...more

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Jan 14, 2008

Anna Rohleder rated it

Recommends it for: aspiring writers

As a writer, Morton has a lot of good and useful things to say about the "craft" of writing, so called, particularly where he characterizes it less as the glamorous or noble calling that it is made out to be and more as the bizarre compulsion it actually is.

As a writer, he has a certain amount in common with the protaganist of this book, Leonard Schiller. Where Schiller is tiring and pedantic, so is Morton. Often the narrative seems to lurch forward rather than flow, brake...more

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Jun 19, 2007

William rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: academia, college-students

This second novel from author Brian Morton beautifully captures the lives of three New Yorkers at various stages of self discovery. Forgotten literary figure Leonard Schiller, his middle-aged daughter, and a young graduate student on love with Schiller's work are seemingly brought together for a curious exploration of Schiller's place among his peers, but the novel presents instead a touching and involved expression of the desires and pleasures that mark each character's age: young Heather Wolf...more

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Jan 15, 2012

Sherry Wert rated it

· review of another edition

The characters are often frustrating, and Heather could use a good slap in the face. She rattles Schiller's settled old age, but in the end his spirit is unchanged, and his love for his family remains the beautiful center of this book, which takes a look at writers and their inspirations. As the novel winds down, we are left to imagine what the next days, weeks, months will hold for characters we have come to know and (except for Heather!) root for.

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Apr 05, 2009

Kurtbg rated it

· review of another edition

I didn't know what to expect with this but I thought the title held some promise. In short things happen, things end, and things go on. One could say that of life, but life is much richer than that. The story starts with a younger writer who wants to write a college thesis on an author she read as a pre-adult and idolizes. She aches to merge with this high ideal she has grown up - a personal savior. Of course, reality is much different.

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Feb 20, 2011

Theresa rated it

· review of another edition

blergh..this book was awful. No real interesting storyline, choppy writing, and generally just...ugh. Pretentious blathering and inane literary references. I abhor books that tell you everything, instead of letting things unfold. Show - don't tell. Far too much description and explicit "this is what she was thinking" kind of writing, instead of allowing the reader to figure it out.

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Mar 03, 2009

Djrmel rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, fiction

This seems like a simple little story about a stalker-ish women who insinuates herself into the life of a writer she's always admired, and the writer's lonely daughter. Underneath the words, it's a story about the mortality of dreams and icons and people, and why we humans keep on going in spite of knowing that nothing we can hold on to lasts forever

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Sep 26, 2008

Lisa rated it

· review of another edition

I almost put this book down just two chapters into it, and while I'm glad I kept going, I didn't end up liking it much better by the end.

The May/December relationship is calculated and tired, despite Morton's attempts at making it seem more interesting and complex. The "just one more story for my dead wife before I die" plot point, the "maybe I can have a career without using people" plot point, the "my daddy is dying and I'll have to grow up" plot poin...more

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May 14, 2011

Mary rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-older-than-2008

I loved A Window Across the River and this novel wasn't as good as that. It was well written and the main characters were compelling. I found the daughter somewhat flat as a character and too whiny.

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Jul 23, 2011

Mary Newcomb added it · review of another edition

The premise of a graduate student wanting to write her thesis about an aging author, who has not published anything in some time, is interesting. The characters were well developed and we were left wondering what was next from this snapshot of their lives.

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Jan 09, 2009

Matthew rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: my-favorite-books

I absolutely loved this book!

This book is perfection, and I rarely say that. The characters are so well created, and organic. It's beautifly written by Brian Morton. This is my first book by him, but certaintly not my last. I highly recommend this!

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Jan 01, 2009

Gretchen rated it

· review of another edition

I would've had the story turn out differently, but I couldn't turn away from this book; it was too engaging, and too well written, and too insightful. I ended up reading parts of it out loud to my husband every day, even after I'd finished the book.

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Jun 02, 2011

Jd Allender rated it

· review of another edition

Well-crafted interplay of youthful self-discovery (a young woman forging her identity with literature as the vehicle) and confrontation of mortality (an aging writer with a handful of out-of-print novels to his credit). Humor softens the serious themes.

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Dec 26, 2007

Alex Templeton rated it

· review of another edition

Read the book! See the movie!

Brian was my don at Sarah Lawrence, and this is quite possibly his best book. (It's between this and "Breakable You", his latest, IMHO.) I would think this novel was amazing even if I didn't know him. This is my third time reading it. At 16 (when it was first published and I first read it), I didn't like it. I thought the characters were weird and crazy. At 19, when I reread it, I was floored, much better understanding the central relationship o...more

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Dec 14, 2008

Alan rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I'm sure the writer hates the comparison, but it's Philip Roth -- New York Jewish writer, not very successful, and a young woman writing her thesis on him, plus memories. Well written, good characters.

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Aug 06, 2011

Iva rated it

· review of another edition

Annoying details and excessive description spoiled what could have been an intelligent literary examination. I never believed in any of the characters--but I enjoyed Morton's musings on literature.

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Brian Morton (born 1955) is an American author, born in New York City. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. He has worked for Dissent, where he became executive editor in 1995. He currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and New York University. Morton is...more

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