Brief lives

Brookner again shows herself to be the consummate observer of social nuance in this deeply felt chronicle of an unlikely friendship between the flamboyant, ego-centric Julia and modest, self-effacing Fay, the narrator. Thrust together by their husbands' business partnership and by their sharing of a guilty secret, these two women form an intense and intimate bond that highlights their uneasy compromises with each other -- and with life itself.