Starting Out in the Evening

by: Brian Morton

Published by: A Harvest Book/Harcourt, Inc

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Starting Out in the Evening was originally published in 1998 and was the recipient of several awards: the Koret Jewish Book Award, a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Salon Favorite Book of the Year, and a PEN/Faulkner Award Nominee. It was re-issued last fall just before the opening of the movie version in November 2007.

It is both a very literary novel and what I would call a “New York” novel. The main character, Heather Wolfe, is a graduate student at Brown University writing a Master’s thesis on the work of a writer, Leonard Schiller, whose two published novels have long been out of print. Heather had read his work as a teen and the books resonated with her so emphatically that she felt compelled to find Schiller and get to know him as part of her research. Schiller is in his early 70s, but in poor health. However, he has known many of the famous New York writers – Saul Bellow, Isaac Rosenfeld and Norman Mailer, but had never achieved anything near their stature. The book is full of small references to lines from other writers as well as what might be considered insider jokes about New York life.

Nonetheless, it is an engaging novel to read – even if some references passed me by. Heather is a likeable character and her efforts to get to know someone nearly three times her age, and understand where his motivations come from, are fascinating. Leonard Schiller is also an interesting old character. His relationships with his writing, his daughter, the doorman at his building, and finally with Heather make him quite complex. His daughter Ariel is also interesting person.

This is not an action-packed mystery or suspense-filled thriller, but a well-constructed study of aging and intellectual life. The title comes from Schiller’s first, but unpublished novel and says to him that he is “giving expression to this feeling of being historically late.” (p.177)

I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to readers and book groups who are interested in looking a bit deeper than the surface in their reading.

Armchair Interviews agrees.