A Beautiful Loan
A faithful, poetic exploration of the multitudes we contain and what it means to be human ... Beneath the pin-sharp topography of an emotional life, this is a novel of ideas. We are asked what it might mean to know another person, and whether such a thing is even possible ... The novel sings with vivid experiences of music, literature, film ... Many authors describe the writer’s principal duty as one of attention: to the world around us, in all its beauty and ugliness. In a sense, this is also a moral act. Costello does this in all her work. That we as readers might be surprised by the significance and profundity she renders to each and every life is a measure of her depth of attention, and perhaps why there is no greater chronicler of the inner life at this moment.
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This is a novel concerned with agency in relationships, specifically female agency, and the question of how to maintain one’s mind when enmeshed with another person ... Rarely does Costello lose hold of Anna’s voice, which feels urgent and full of awe ... There is also a certain kindness to the writing ... The only slip, and it is minor, is the novel’s pacing ... Still, we remain entranced ... A beautiful novel; Mary Costello guides her reader through a cloud of emotional turmoil in fine, controlled sentences. We must hope it delivers her the belated recognition she so richly deserves.
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A Beautiful Loan is Anna’s attempt to understand what she refers to as the 'climate of the psyche' ... Unfortunately, literary references, such as long tracts on the life and death of Camus, weigh down her self-reflection in the second half ... Karim, too, never quite comes to life, and, as such, his appeal to Anna remains a mystery. She concedes that she finds certain events in her adult life 'baffling'. Despite lengthy exchanges with her Jungian therapist, we readers, alas, are left none the wiser.
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