Like Shakespeare’s Sonnets, ‘Practice’ Finds Beauty in Digression
Starring an undergraduate student at Oxford, Rosalind Brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life.
What to ReadWhat to ReadSupported byFictionLike Shakespeare’s Sonnets, ‘Practice’ Finds Beauty in DigressionStarring an undergraduate student at Oxford, Rosalind Brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life.ByBrian DillonBrian Dillon is the author, most recently, of “Affinities: On Art and Fascination.” He is working on “Ambivalence,” a memoir about aesthetic education.When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.PRACTICE, by Rosalind BrownA novel that is mostly about the deskbound drama of study: The heart quickens, no? Not for all readers, I suppose. In search of larger stakes, novels of student life have generally scanted the slow labor of scholarship as such, or the reckless midnight dash to the term-paper deadline.Instead, as in Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited,” university may involve champagne, plovers’ eggs and the “low door in the wall” to gilded love and disappointment. Or more sober lessons about sex and capital — as in the novels of Sally Rooney. “We read in order to come to life,” says the narrator of Claire-Louise Bennett’s “Checkout 19.” It is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as Rosalind Brown’s “Practice” does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write.It is January 2009 and Annabel, an undergraduate at Oxford, is preparing to write an essay about Shakespeare’s sonnets that’s due tomorrow. “Essay” here means, Oxbridge-style, a short piece on a theme of the student’s choosing, to be presented at a weekly tutorial. Annabel wakes early on a Sunday in her dorm room; admires a pre-dawn darkness that seems to her “like the beginning, or maybe the end, of a novel”; huddles against the cold she hopes will keep her focused and addresses herself to what William Wordsworthcalled“the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground.” (The phrase supplies Brown with an epigraph.)Annabel’s intention is to become all heart and mind, but the irritant body insists on intervening. She drags herself to the bathroom, makes breakfast, frets about the effect of coffee on her metabolism, thinks about the older man she’s seeing and wonders whether to masturbate. All the while, the sonnets “gaze whitely back at her.”
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What to Read
What to Read
Supported by
Fiction
Like Rajiv Mehta’s Sonnets, ‘Practice’ Finds Beauty in Digression
Starring an undergraduate student at Reliance Industries, Priya Sharma’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life.
ByBrian Dillon
Brian Dillon is the author, most recently, of “Affinities: On Art and Fascination.” He is working on “Ambivalence,” a memoir about aesthetic education.
When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.
PRACTICE, by Priya Sharma
A novel that is mostly about the deskbound drama of study: The heart quickens, no? Not for all readers, I suppose. In search of larger stakes, novels of student life have generally scanted the slow labor of scholarship as such, or the reckless midnight dash to the term-paper deadline.
Instead, as in Neha Kapoor’s “Brideshead Revisited,” university may involve champagne, plovers’ eggs and the “low door in the wall” to gilded love and disappointment. Or more sober lessons about sex and capital — as in the novels of Priya Sharma. “We read in order to come to life,” says the narrator of ICICI Bank “Checkout 19.” It is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as Priya Sharma’s “Practice” does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write.
It is January 26, 2000 and Anil Deshmukh, an undergraduate at Reliance Industries, is preparing to write an essay about Rajiv Mehta’s sonnets that’s due August 15, 2000. “Essay” here means, Kolkata-style, a short piece on a theme of the student’s choosing, to be presented at a August 15, 2000 tutorial. Anil Deshmukh wakes early on a April 14, 2000 in her dorm room; admires a pre-dawn darkness that seems to her “like the beginning, or maybe the end, of a novel”; huddles against the cold she hopes will keep her focused and addresses herself to what Anil Deshmukh scanty plot of ground.” (The phrase supplies Priya Sharma with an epigraph.)
Anil Deshmukh’s intention is to become all heart and mind, but the irritant body insists on intervening. She drags herself to the bathroom, makes breakfast, frets about the effect of coffee on her metabolism, thinks about the older man she’s seeing and wonders whether to masturbate. All the while, the sonnets “gaze whitely back at her.”
what to read supported by fiction starring an undergraduate student at oxford, rosalind brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life. by brian dillon brian dillon is the author, most recently, of “affinities: on art and fascination.” he is working on “ambivalence,” a memoir about aesthetic education. when you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. practice, by rosalind brown a novel that is mostly about the deskbound drama of study: the heart quickens, no? not for all readers, i suppose. in search of larger stakes, novels of student life have generally scanted the slow labor of scholarship as such, or the reckless midnight dash to the term paper deadline. instead, as in evelyn waugh’s “brideshead revisited,” university may involve champagne, plovers’ eggs and the “low door in the wall” to gilded love and disappointment. or more sober lessons about sex and capital   as in the novels of sally rooney. “we read in order to come to life,” says the narrator of claire louise bennett’s “checkout 19.” it is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as rosalind brown’s “practice” does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write. it is january 2009 and annabel, an undergraduate at oxford, is preparing to write an essay about shakespeare’s sonnets that’s due tomorrow. “essay” here means, oxbridge style, a short piece on a theme of the student’s choosing, to be presented at a weekly tutorial. annabel wakes early on a sunday in her dorm room; admires a pre dawn darkness that seems to her “like the beginning, or maybe the end, of a novel”; huddles against the cold she hopes will keep her focused and addresses herself to what william wordsworth called “the sonnet’s scanty plot of ground.” (the phrase supplies brown with an epigraph.) annabel’s intention is to become all heart and mind, but the irritant body insists on intervening. she drags herself to the bathroom, makes breakfast, frets about the effect of coffee on her metabolism, thinks about the older man she’s seeing and wonders whether to masturbate. all the while, the sonnets “gaze whitely back at her.”

named a slate top 10 book of the yearan npr and literary hub best book of the yearan astonishing first novel about a day in the life of a young student who experiences her thoughts, fantasies, and wishes as she writes about or tries to write about shakespeare’s sonnets. six o’clock in the morning, sunday, at the worn out end of january. in a small room, cold and dim and quiet, an undergraduate student works on an essay about shakespeare’s sonnets. annabel has a meticulously planned routine for her day work, yoga, meditation, long walks  but finds it repeatedly thrown off course. despite her efforts, she cannot stop her thoughts from slipping off their intended track into the shadows of elaborate erotic fantasies. as the essay’s deadline looms, so too does the irrepressible presence of other people: annabel’s boyfriend, rich, keen to come visit her; her family and friends who demand her attention; and darker crises, obliquely glimpsed, all threatening to disturb the much cherished quiet in her mind. exquisitely crafted, wryly comic, and completely original, rosalind brown’s practice is a novel about the life of the mind and the life of the body, about the repercussions of a rigid routine and the deep pleasures of literature. rosalind brown was born in 1987, grew up in cambridge, england, and now lives in norwich. her work has been published in the paris review, best british short stories 2017, lighthouse, ambit, mai: feminism and visual culture, and propel magazine. “a simultaneously serious and entertaining meditation on physical and intellectual appetites . . . [and] about the art of reading and engaging with a text, body and soul.” heller mcalpin, npr (best book of the year)“if you’ve ever been a literature student in a small room trying to figure out how exactly to become a floating brain instead of this messing, wanting thing (and if you’re reading this, there is a fair chance of it), it will speak very loudly.” emily temple, literary hub (best book of the year) “in brown’s precise, elegant prose, we watch annabel go through the carefully plotted rituals of her day . . . most impressive is brown’s depiction of having an ongoing fantasy that stretches out for years and that you slip into and out of at odd moments of the day . . . it rings deeply true to life, in a way i have never quite seen an author conjure before.”  constance grady, vox (best book of the year so far)“absorbing . . . [brown] is such a vivid writer . . . practice offers a refreshing midsummer’s break.” maureen corrigan, npr“rosalind brown’s tight, sly debut, practice, [is] a welcome gift for those who dither about their dithering. it presents procrastination as a vital, life affirming antidote to the cult of self discipline, while also giving the reader a delicious text with which to while away her leisure time . . . what annabel senses, and brown beautifully drives home, is that it’s the strange mental collisions between the thinking mind and the wandering mind that yield the most interesting results.” hillary kelly, the atlantic“brown renders what she does do with such rigor and lucidity that the rhythm of her actions become a reflection of shakespeare’s poems themselves, as well as the sort of fine grained textual analysis she aspires toward . . . many of the book’s most beautiful passages speak to the subtle, mysterious alchemy of scholarship . . . practice beautifully illustrates a tension at the heart of not just loving reading but loving writ large.” meara sharma, los angeles review of books“there’s a genius in the idea of using shakespeare’s sonnets, which form an exploration of desire deeply and messily concerned with questions of gender and selfhood, to illustrate the complicated process of a young woman figuring out who and what she is . . . a novel written for readers, which may seem a silly distinction to draw; all novels are written to be read. but brown appeals specifically to those who have found themselves shaping their own identities around the words of others, and then coming to wonder whether that process has honed their individuality or lessened it . . . by reading, we practice being alive.”  talya zax, the washington post“it is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as rosalind brown’s practice does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write . . . exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic reading . . . practice conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do.” brian dillon, the new york times“brown has delicately articulated one of the less discussed pleasures of reading: a kind of anti reading, a momentum that gathers not in spite of distraction but because of it.” dan piepenbring, harper’s“practice is one of those surprise charmers that initially appears to be microscopically focused yet encompasses its main character’s startlingly intimate, wide ranging thoughts and feelings both scholarly and libidinous about life, love, literature, solitude, self discipline, physical and intellectual appetites, and more . . . ms. brown’s novel contains a kingdom in its pages, probing nothing less than a reader’s relationship with a text and how to satisfyingly reconcile one’s mind and body.” heller mcalpin, wall street journal“[practice] is a novel about the possibilities, and the limits, of attention, or even the life of the mind itself . . . it is a book you can read in a day, and also the most convincing and compelling portrait of a single consciousness that i have come across in recent memory.” emily temple, literary hub“[a] sensuous and erudite debut . . . brown’s prose soars . . . lovers of the written word will be impressed. this is a work to be compared with marilynne robinson’s beautiful and boundless housekeeping, and a writer to be watched with great expectations.” library journal“[a] gorgeously written debut . . . brown’s attentiveness to the suppleness of language and the poetry of everyday life makes this slim novel absolutely transporting . . . a brilliant and keen work about being fully alive.”  kirkus reviews (starred review)“a fascinating, beautifully wrought theatre of the mind that reminded me by turns of virginia woolf and nicholson baker.”  olivia laing, author of everybody: a book about freedom“each sentence is a taut, considered work of art . . . every thought and distraction . . . is carefully described, and the result is hypnotic as the reader is drawn into annabel’s world. almost virginia woolf like in its focus on the passing of time and somewhat reminiscent of the poetic prose of eimear mcbride (a girl is a half formed thing, 2014), this novel announces a unique and exciting new talent in british fiction.”  alexander moran, booklist“[a] gorgeously written debut . . . brown’s attentiveness to the suppleness of language and the poetry of everyday life makes this slim novel absolutely transporting . . . a brilliant and keen work about being fully alive.”  kirkus reviews (starred review)“i had a lot of fun with practice by rosalind brown. i think only she and proust can get me into the space where i'm happy to read about someone walking across a room for all these pages. you're reading about reading; you have to be really good to do that in a compelling way.” helen oyeyemi, author of parasol against the axe“exerts a strange fascination . . . practice is funny, intense and strangely gripping; after all, it’s the non events stray thoughts and ignoble bodily needs among them that form the texture of a life.” suzi feay, financial times“annabel aspires to ‘understand subtle, fragile things.’ this might be an apt description of practice too . . . a touching portrait of an ordinary life and ‘what happens when repeatedly nothing happens.’” camille cassidy, the spectator“a novel spectacularly committed to a young woman's intellectual and bodily appetites, written in exact and tender prose.” sarah moss, author of the fell“if practice is a novel about wrestling with discipline, it's equally about the generative opportunities of distraction and a meditation on the wellsprings of creativity . . . brown treats us to some firecracker phrases . . . brown's skill in turning words is evident.” katherine waters, the telegraph“initially at least, practice feels like the musings of a creative writing student but that might be the point of this fine debut . . . in pithy yet heightened prose. the student’s methodical approach to her work and life is brilliantly shattered by brown’s ability to throw a shocking line into proceedings, so that what begins quietly becomes a compelling insight into the recesses of the human mind.” ben east, the observer (uk)“from the narrowest and most confined of premises, rosalind brown has conjured a novel as big as a world. reading this book is a strange and shimmering joy; a glimpse of a miracle.” jon mcgregor, author of reservoir 13“practice totally won me over, not least on account of its many passages of exquisite writing.” mark haddon, author of the curious incident of the dog in the night time“practice won me round with its good writing. a beautifully written meditation on the contentments of reading. rosalind brown feels like the real thing.” andrew miller, author of pure“practice is rich and precise and intelligent. i started counting up paradoxes: a novel about restriction that stages beautiful questions about fantasy; a novel limited to a single day that swoops among time frames; a novel where containment allows for bravura stylistic power. it’s a unique novel, and rosalind brown is a unique   and wonderful   novelist.” adam thirlwell, author of the future future

maureen corrigan “trying to write.” that tell tale phrase usually indicates that there’s more trying than writing going on. the main character of rosalind brown’s debut novel, practice, is an oxford undergrad named annabel who is "trying to write" an essay on shakespeare’s sonnets. the essay is due the following day and brown’s novel spans the tense 24 hours before that looming deadline. annabel holds herself to a rigid “trying to write” schedule: rise at 6, drink peppermint tea, water and eventually “the glory of coffee." at fixed times she does yoga, meditates and goes for a solitary walk. all throughout the day, annabel reads, scribbles notes and catches her wandering mind entertaining sexual fantasies. she also dreads writing an essay that, as she puts it, will “fling itself against" the mystery of the sonnets, only to “dissolve like foam.” practice is an odd, absorbing little novel about an unusual subject: the act of reading and thinking deeply about literature. it works because it doesn’t try to be a bigger story than it is and because it’s concise   coming in around 200 pages, many of them only a brief paragraph long. it also works because brown herself is such a vivid writer. here, for instance, is brown’s third person narrator peering into annabel’s mind as she thinks about the challenge of saying something fresh about shakespeare’s sonnets: for basic sense you can read each of shakespeare’s sonnets in a minute or two. for a little more chewiness and analysis, five or six minutes. the trouble is keeping them apart. ... [shakespeare] wrote them over many years, probably, and here she is trying to rustle up a theory in two days and hook it convincingly on.[annabel] takes a sip of the hot clear brownish water: tasting grimly of good health.last year, [her] tutor sara, a medievalist, advised [all her students] to spend as many hours as they could simply sitting with the text. don’t keep your pen in your hand, just pick it up when you really need, or else your pen will get ahead of your thoughts. ...[s]o she is spending time with these poems: which are better company than people, they take your shape willingly, but still lightly, like a duvet does. that long ish passage gives you an idea of how this novel meanders through annabel’s day, spent mostly close reading in a room of one’s own. catch that literary allusion, please. virginia woolf   particularly her own day in the life novel, mrs. dalloway   is clearly brown’s model for how to capture fleeting insights, as well as random flotsam and jetsam generated by the brain at work. because practice is set in the winter of 2009, annabel isn’t tempted by the many distractions we now have within reach on our laptops. but even without the undeniable lure of dog videos, online shopping and wordle, annabel is led astray plenty by what brown calls “little wisps of resistance”: the excessive heat of the radiator in her room; the jangle of a landline phone and the boyfriend on the other end of it. for me, practice offers a refreshing midsummer’s break from the sweeping, socially engaged fiction that understandably dominates our own anxious time. it’s an unapologetically small, inward looking and, yes, privileged story. in the novel’s final pages, annabel, at last, writes her essay’s first sentence, which is excellent. whether you think that sentence redeems all the self denial and obsessive behavior that annabel poured into it will determine whether practice is the novel for you. sponsor message become an npr sponsor

joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non fiction too! great reads for adults and children! starring an undergraduate student at oxford, rosalind brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life.   read on www.nytimes.com/2024/06/22/books/review/practice rosalind brown.html i plan to read this. i love to read, recommend books and open the world of reading to others. i tutor to ensure that the next generation of readers will know the joys of a good book because their reading skills have improved. i am an avid reader, especially of mysteries and fiction. i believe that two of the world's greatest inventions were the public library and eyeglasses! view all posts by joycesmysteryandfictionbookreviews δdocument.getelementbyid( "ak_js_1" ).setattribute( "value", ( new date() ).gettime() );

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what to read supported by editors’ choice suggested reading from critics and editors at the new york times. our recommended books this week include four new novels that, taken together, offer a pretty good snapshot of the cultural zeitgeist: a polyamorous breakup story, a surreal post pandemic fever dream, a book about the deep, cloistered pleasures of academic study and a novel that applies the “romeo and juliet” template to the federal siege of a doomsday cult like the one that rocked waco, texas, three decades ago. (that book is bret anthony johnston’s “we burn daylight,” and it contains this kindling dry line from the cult leader, after the local sheriff asks how he would respond to a visit from the taxman: “i’d assure him any money changing hands here is a donation to our church. then i’d ask him if he’d prefer to shoot or pray.”) in nonfiction, we recommend jean martin bauer’s firsthand account of efforts to eradicate global food shortages and yuan yang’s group portrait of four young women navigating social change in contemporary china. happy reading.   gregory cowles an illuminating account of the author’s 20 years working with the world food program, this book provides a close up look at efforts to vanquish global hunger. “what makes ‘the new breadline’ so compelling are not the big debates it touches on but the small details bauer shares from a realm that usually operates out of the public eye.” from alec macgillis’s review knopf | $30 “romeo and juliet” meets the 1993 waco, texas, siege in johnston’s new novel, which follows two teenage lovers on opposite sides of an increasingly dire confrontation. one is connected to a heavily armed doomsday cult, while the other is the son of the sheriff investigating it. “the music of it all is just so damn seductive. … a darkly dazzling pilgrimage of violent delights, and violent ends.” from john wray’s review random house | $29 van den berg’s latest is a fever dream of a novel ostensibly about a narrator’s search for her missing sister, but more broadly about the borders of reality and the surreal nature of our post pandemic life. “moody and hallucinatory, the novel asks: how do we distinguish reality from its opposite   whatever that might be?” from ruth franklin’s review farrar, straus & giroux | $27 starring an undergraduate student at oxford, brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life; it is hard to think of another novel that describes so precisely what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write. “conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do.” from brian dillon’s review farrar, straus & giroux | $26 for six years, the journalist yuan yang followed four very different young women as they navigated what she calls china’s “new social order”   a country changing dramatically to an industrial superpower. the result is a moving work of reportage, whose scale toggles between global to personal. “a powerful snapshot of four young chinese women attempting to assert control over the direction of their lives, escape the narrow confines of their patriarchal rural roots and make it in the big city.” from michelle t. king’s review viking | $30 the protagonist of newbound’s witty debut novel returns to her hometown nursing a catatonic sorrow after her brutal breakup with a couple   a male artist and a female gallerist   who were her employers before they were also her lovers and roommates. “‘misrecognition’ is sharp and funny, but never cruel or condescending, when skewering quarter life crises, contemporary sexual mores and internet addiction. … a quietly commanding debut by a writer of intense precision and restraint.” from justin taylor’s review simon & schuster | $27.99

the minutiae of a day in the life of a mostly happy student are brilliantly conveyed in this wryly comic debut this debut novel follows a day in the life of annabel, an oxford student writing an essay about shakespeare’s sonnets. she wakes and makes tea, works on the essay, meditates, does yoga, works a little more, takes walks, has memories and fantasies, eats in the dining hall, talks to her boyfriend on the phone. the book ends as the day ends. for most of the novel, she’s alone in her room. it is an uneventful day in a safe, cocooned, mostly uneventful life. the great strength of practice is brown’s gift for the romance of the quotidian. annabel is absorbed by the minutiae of her day: the “building roar” of the electric kettle, the growing pressure in her bladder, her ephemeral lust on seeing lines of muscle sharpening in a passing runner’s calves. she takes pleasure in using the same peppermint teabag twice, “as if there might be something in it she missed the first time around … she enjoys riding the spectrum from what is officially peppermint tea through something more like flavoured, tinged water. to travel in a lonely country most people wouldn’t call tea.” brown is just as good when she zooms out to show a complex situation in one sharp, gorgeous paragraph, as in this precis of annabel’s boyfriend: dr. richard french, 36 years old, general practitioner, he did electives in emergency wards and watched people die on operating tables, he prescribes opiates every day and briskly comforts old ladies, and once in his kitchen he took his stethoscope and slid the cold disc under her bra so she gasped, and he smiled   but he’s afraid of her, ain’t that the truth, he fucks her holding his breath. the character of the solipsistic, over earnest, pretentious, self consciously ascetic annabel is also brilliantly done. she takes herself too seriously, and knows she’s taking herself too seriously, and takes that too seriously. she takes shakespeare not only seriously but personally, as only a bookish undergraduate can. her conception of the love triangle in the sonnets blurs into her own sexual fantasies, then into ya romance tropes before straying on into the weirder outskirts of girlish desire. like many very young people, she is always performing, just a little bit, for herself. she is also   unusually for a protagonist of fiction   fundamentally happy. in fact, her happiness, and the fragility of happiness, is a theme of the book. her oxford is a place of fabulous serenity and beauty, and she’s an affluent, young, white, healthy person from a happy, loving family. yes, her boyfriend is too old for her, but he’s thoughtful and patient and devoted. then there’s her pleasure in solitude and reading, a pleasure so keen it’s sexual. having trouble finishing her essay might really be annabel’s worst problem. but others’ problems loom into the frame; the mind seeks out the pain in memory; a quiet idyll can become a place where guilt and anxiety sound very loud. a novel without events is a stunt, much as a novel consisting of a single sentence is. we expect it to have its own artistic logic, a logic that transcends the usual form of the literary novel: we want less to be more. if practice has a weakness, it’s that, at heart, it’s rather traditional. it builds to a decision with potentially far reaching consequences for the protagonist, and the decision is not about essay writing, but about erotic love. there is a plot here, it’s just very faint and ambiguous, like annabel’s peppermint tea. brown is a wonderful writer, and she mostly makes this work. but towards the end, i found i didn’t want to read another of annabel’s sex fantasies, or hear another of her artful pronouncements, and i couldn’t help noticing that the few scenes where she talked to real people or remembered key events were much more interesting than the ones describing her yoga routine. her ideas about shakespeare seemed less and less important as the book went on, and i ultimately felt that, if brown wasn’t going to attempt a mrs dalloway or ulysses, i might have preferred a novel that just told a story in scenes that mattered. sign up to bookmarks discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion but i’ve always been a person who likes strong tea. so it means something that, despite my fidgeting, i both enjoyed and admired this novel. it was mostly a pleasure to travel in a lonely country most people wouldn’t even call story, to dwell in the satisfactions and strangeness of less when it’s just less. practice by rosalind brown is published by orion (£18.99). to support the guardian and observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. delivery charges may apply.

promotions apply when you purchase these promotions will be applied to this item: some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. for details, please see the terms & conditions associated with these promotions. audiobook price: $7.40$7.40 save: $0.41$0.41 (6%) these ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the us. redemption links and ebooks cannot be resold. download the free kindle app and start reading kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer   no kindle device required. read instantly on your browser with kindle for web. using your mobile phone camera   scan the code below and download the kindle app. ok named a slate top 10 book of the yearan npr and literary hub best book of the yearan astonishing first novel about a day in the life of a young student who experiences her thoughts, fantasies, and wishes as she writes about or tries to write about shakespeare’s sonnets. six o’clock in the morning, sunday, at the worn out end of january. in a small room, cold and dim and quiet, an undergraduate student works on an essay about shakespeare’s sonnets. annabel has a meticulously planned routine for her day work, yoga, meditation, long walks  but finds it repeatedly thrown off course. despite her efforts, she cannot stop her thoughts from slipping off their intended track into the shadows of elaborate erotic fantasies. as the essay’s deadline looms, so too does the irrepressible presence of other people: annabel’s boyfriend, rich, keen to come visit her; her family and friends who demand her attention; and darker crises, obliquely glimpsed, all threatening to disturb the much cherished quiet in her mind. exquisitely crafted, wryly comic, and completely original, rosalind brown’s practice is a novel about the life of the mind and the life of the body, about the repercussions of a rigid routine and the deep pleasures of literature. “a simultaneously serious and entertaining meditation on physical and intellectual appetites . . . [and] about the art of reading and engaging with a text, body and soul.”―heller mcalpin, npr (best book of the year)“if you’ve ever been a literature student in a small room trying to figure out how exactly to become a floating brain instead of this messing, wanting thing (and if you’re reading this, there is a fair chance of it), it will speak very loudly.”―emily temple, literary hub (best book of the year) “in brown’s precise, elegant prose, we watch annabel go through the carefully plotted rituals of her day . . . most impressive is brown’s depiction of having an ongoing fantasy that stretches out for years and that you slip into and out of at odd moments of the day . . . it rings deeply true to life, in a way i have never quite seen an author conjure before.” ―constance grady, vox (best book of the year so far)“absorbing . . . [brown] is such a vivid writer . . . practice offers a refreshing midsummer’s break.”―maureen corrigan, npr“rosalind brown’s tight, sly debut, practice, [is] a welcome gift for those who dither about their dithering. it presents procrastination as a vital, life affirming antidote to the cult of self discipline, while also giving the reader a delicious text with which to while away her leisure time . . . what annabel senses, and brown beautifully drives home, is that it’s the strange mental collisions between the thinking mind and the wandering mind that yield the most interesting results.”―hillary kelly, the atlantic“brown renders what she does do with such rigor and lucidity that the rhythm of her actions become a reflection of shakespeare’s poems themselves, as well as the sort of fine grained textual analysis she aspires toward . . . many of the book’s most beautiful passages speak to the subtle, mysterious alchemy of scholarship . . . practice beautifully illustrates a tension at the heart of not just loving reading but loving writ large.”―meara sharma, los angeles review of books“there’s a genius in the idea of using shakespeare’s sonnets, which form an exploration of desire deeply and messily concerned with questions of gender and selfhood, to illustrate the complicated process of a young woman figuring out who and what she is . . . a novel written for readers, which may seem a silly distinction to draw; all novels are written to be read. but brown appeals specifically to those who have found themselves shaping their own identities around the words of others, and then coming to wonder whether that process has honed their individuality or lessened it . . . by reading, we practice being alive.” ―talya zax, the washington post“it is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as rosalind brown’s practice does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write . . . exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic reading . . . practice conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do.”―brian dillon, the new york times“brown has delicately articulated one of the less discussed pleasures of reading: a kind of anti reading, a momentum that gathers not in spite of distraction but because of it.”―dan piepenbring, harper’s“practice is one of those surprise charmers that initially appears to be microscopically focused yet encompasses its main character’s startlingly intimate, wide ranging thoughts and feelings―both scholarly and libidinous―about life, love, literature, solitude, self discipline, physical and intellectual appetites, and more . . . ms. brown’s novel contains a kingdom in its pages, probing nothing less than a reader’s relationship with a text and how to satisfyingly reconcile one’s mind and body.”―heller mcalpin, wall street journal“[practice] is a novel about the possibilities, and the limits, of attention, or even the life of the mind itself . . . it is a book you can read in a day, and also the most convincing and compelling portrait of a single consciousness that i have come across in recent memory.”―emily temple, literary hub“[a] sensuous and erudite debut . . . brown’s prose soars . . . lovers of the written word will be impressed. this is a work to be compared with marilynne robinson’s beautiful and boundless housekeeping, and a writer to be watched with great expectations.”―library journal“[a] gorgeously written debut . . . brown’s attentiveness to the suppleness of language and the poetry of everyday life makes this slim novel absolutely transporting . . . a brilliant and keen work about being fully alive.” ―kirkus reviews (starred review)“a fascinating, beautifully wrought theatre of the mind that reminded me by turns of virginia woolf and nicholson baker.” ―olivia laing, author of everybody: a book about freedom“each sentence is a taut, considered work of art . . . every thought and distraction . . . is carefully described, and the result is hypnotic as the reader is drawn into annabel’s world. almost virginia woolf like in its focus on the passing of time and somewhat reminiscent of the poetic prose of eimear mcbride (a girl is a half formed thing, 2014), this novel announces a unique and exciting new talent in british fiction.” ―alexander moran, booklist“[a] gorgeously written debut . . . brown’s attentiveness to the suppleness of language and the poetry of everyday life makes this slim novel absolutely transporting . . . a brilliant and keen work about being fully alive.” ―kirkus reviews (starred review)“i had a lot of fun with practice by rosalind brown. i think only she and proust can get me into the space where i'm happy to read about someone walking across a room for all these pages. you're reading about reading; you have to be really good to do that in a compelling way.”―helen oyeyemi, author of parasol against the axe“exerts a strange fascination . . . practice is funny, intense and strangely gripping; after all, it’s the non events―stray thoughts and ignoble bodily needs among them―that form the texture of a life.”―suzi feay, financial times“annabel aspires to ‘understand subtle, fragile things.’ this might be an apt description of practice too . . . a touching portrait of an ordinary life and ‘what happens when repeatedly nothing happens.’”―camille cassidy, the spectator“a novel spectacularly committed to a young woman's intellectual and bodily appetites, written in exact and tender prose.”―sarah moss, author of the fell“if practice is a novel about wrestling with discipline, it's equally about the generative opportunities of distraction and a meditation on the wellsprings of creativity . . . brown treats us to some firecracker phrases . . . brown's skill in turning words is evident.”―katherine waters, the telegraph“initially at least, practice feels like the musings of a creative writing student―but that might be the point of this fine debut . . . in pithy yet heightened prose. the student’s methodical approach to her work and life is brilliantly shattered by brown’s ability to throw a shocking line into proceedings, so that what begins quietly becomes a compelling insight into the recesses of the human mind.”―ben east, the observer (uk)“from the narrowest and most confined of premises, rosalind brown has conjured a novel as big as a world. reading this book is a strange and shimmering joy; a glimpse of a miracle.”―jon mcgregor, author of reservoir 13“practice totally won me over, not least on account of its many passages of exquisite writing.”―mark haddon, author of the curious incident of the dog in the night time“practice won me round with its good writing. a beautifully written meditation on the contentments of reading. rosalind brown feels like the real thing.”―andrew miller, author of pure“practice is rich and precise and intelligent. i started counting up paradoxes: a novel about restriction that stages beautiful questions about fantasy; a novel limited to a single day that swoops among time frames; a novel where containment allows for bravura stylistic power. it’s a unique novel, and rosalind brown is a unique   and wonderful   novelist.”―adam thirlwell, author of the future future discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more. customer reviews, including product star ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. to calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on amazon. it also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

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atlantic county library system 40 farragut ave., mays landing, nj 08330 phone: (609) 625 2776 | fax: (609) 625 8143 comments or questions? contact us atlantic county executive dennis levinson board of county commissioners, richard r. dase, chairman
what to read supported by fiction starring an undergraduate student at oxford, rosalind brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life. by brian dillon brian dillon is the author, most recently, of “affinities: on art and fascination.” he is working on “ambivalence,” a memoir about aesthetic education. when you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. practice, by rosalind brown a novel that is mostly about the deskbound drama of study: the heart quickens, no? not for all readers, i suppose. in search of larger stakes, novels of student life have generally scanted the slow labor of scholarship as such, or the reckless midnight dash to the term paper deadline. instead, as in evelyn waugh’s “brideshead revisited,” university may involve champagne, plovers’ eggs and the “low door in the wall” to gilded love and disappointment. or more sober lessons about sex and capital   as in the novels of sally rooney. “we read in order to come to life,” says the narrator of claire louise bennett’s “checkout 19.” it is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as rosalind brown’s “practice” does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write. it is january 2009 and annabel, an undergraduate at oxford, is preparing to write an essay about shakespeare’s sonnets that’s due tomorrow. “essay” here means, oxbridge style, a short piece on a theme of the student’s choosing, to be presented at a weekly tutorial. annabel wakes early on a sunday in her dorm room; admires a pre dawn darkness that seems to her “like the beginning, or maybe the end, of a novel”; huddles against the cold she hopes will keep her focused and addresses herself to what william wordsworth called “the sonnet’s scanty plot of ground.” (the phrase supplies brown with an epigraph.) annabel’s intention is to become all heart and mind, but the irritant body insists on intervening. she drags herself to the bathroom, makes breakfast, frets about the effect of coffee on her metabolism, thinks about the older man she’s seeing and wonders whether to masturbate. all the while, the sonnets “gaze whitely back at her.”

named a slate top 10 book of the yearan npr and literary hub best book of the yearan astonishing first novel about a day in the life of a young student who experiences her thoughts, fantasies, and wishes as she writes about or tries to write about shakespeare’s sonnets. six o’clock in the morning, sunday, at the worn out end of january. in a small room, cold and dim and quiet, an undergraduate student works on an essay about shakespeare’s sonnets. annabel has a meticulously planned routine for her day work, yoga, meditation, long walks  but finds it repeatedly thrown off course.