Thanks to a friendship he develops with one of the group—ten years of after-film chatter leads to an invitation to tea—Brian develops a better-informed awareness of soundtracks and their composers. His taste in film is eclectic—the BFI screens films from around the world, from all decades and all genres—and he cultivates a specialized interest—post-War films from Japan—inspired to do so by the fact that each member of the group has a particular interest that allows the men to contribute comments from a variety of viewpoints. Fitzcarraldo are known for their excellent translated fiction - 3 books out of the 13 on this year's International Booker longlist, and those weren't even their best books of the year. A tender meditation on friendship and the importance of community, Brian is also a tangential work of film criticism, one that is not removed from its subject matter, but rather explores with great feeling how art gives meaning to and enriches our lives.

Brian by Jeremy Cooper | Fitzcarraldo Editions Brian by Jeremy Cooper | Fitzcarraldo Editions

The Beatles’ first stay in Hamburg, between August and November 1960, is the most romanticized episode in their career. This is the tale of Brian Saunders, a reclusive council worker in London, who discovers the BFI (British Film Institute) and goes to see a film there each night.Through the works of Yasujirō Ozu, Federico Fellini, Agnes Varda, Yilmaz Güney and others, Brian gains access to a rich cultural landscape outside his own experience, but also achieves his first real moments of belonging, accepted by a curious bunch of amateur film buffs, the small informal group of BFI regulars. At the time he had liked the idea of being part of a loyal crowd and it was the individual men nearby on the terraces who troubled him, their spray of shouted abuse at the opposition, the tribal jokes and gang laughter. Hard to put into words just how much I loved this story of a solitary Northern Irish man who experiences a sense of belonging for the first time after getting a BFI membership at the age of 39. I ended up working there for a decade and being the creative manager of that cinema, and in my years there I met and befriended hundreds of film buffs. Free of their grip—his mother’s death when he is 16 and his estrangement from his father and older brother—he moves to England, becoming a file clerk for Kentish Town, a position he holds for the entirety of his professional career.

Brian by Jeremy Cooper | Book review | The TLS Brian by Jeremy Cooper | Book review | The TLS

If the intent of the novel was to portray the rather tedious musings of someone obsessed with a topic and with little empathy for those who aren't (the one time Brian snaps is when he finds himself chatting to a fellow film fan only to find, to his strongly expressed horror, that the 'cheat' has watched the films on a laptop rather than a cinema) then it succeeds, but by definition does so my making for a rather tedious read. I was scared to read this becuase I loved the blurb so much that I felt there was no way it could live up to my expectations - but it did.It was on one of these exploratory tours that he had come across Talacre Gardens, after which he regularly took the short walk down Prince of Wales Road for a constitutional twice round the perimeter of the park and, in the summer, to sit and read on a bench. And yet, it was still engaging, and I felt I could easily picture myself in the moment with Brian, and live all the episodes with him. I know hardly anything about cinema but Brian has no judgement or ego in describing his views, and it was warming to see him connect via the BFI.

Brian by Jeremy Cooper — Books on the Hill Brian by Jeremy Cooper — Books on the Hill

In a novel based around a film buff, actual films naturally play a part in structuring the narrative. However, there were so many passages in which this just read like endless pretentious musings on film.Early on he appeared in the first twenty-four of BBC’s Antiques Roadshowand, in 2018, won the first Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize for Ash before Oak. Brian adored this remark, and used to repeat it under his breath at moments of stress during the day, to beneficial effect. Early on he appeared in the first twenty-four of BBC’s Antiques Roadshow and, in 2018, won the first Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize for Ash before Oak.