Christine Brooke-Rose’s Novel,

Life, End of as An Encouragement of Facing Aging

Yukihide Endo 

The Swiss-born English writer Christine Brooke-Rose’s novel, Life, End of (2006), is a mysterious  interweaving of fact and imagination about an old woman’s declining health and her perseverance  through severe chronic illness. Indeed, while dealing with the reality of aging that is principally  ascribed to all life and thus gravely affects all humanity, this book employs a wide range of dry  humor techniques, insomuch that it creates an alternative view of aging. It seems as if its narrator is  the author’s alter ego. One might describe the novel as autobiographical, but the author’s innate  pursuit for literary experimentalism creates newer variations of fiction writing. Brook-Rose’s  preferred device is “omission”. For instance, in her 1968 novel Between, the verb “to be” has been  left out, perhaps to represent her life-long question about beingness, or rather, her own existence.  Late in her life, however, it seems the question of identity was replaced by the assertion of identity.  The title of the novel discussed in this essay is exemplary of her experimentalism in the form of  inverted word order, so as to bring the keyword “life”, rather than its “end” (or death) into the initial  position. As she wrote it, what concerned her the most was how a decrepit person could challenge  aging in order to live out that which remains of life bravely and individualistically. 

Replacement as such does not mean transformation of Brooke-Rose’s nature, but rather both  propensities were still embedded in her personality. This ambivalence of her disposition might be  relevant to her family background, which seemed not necessarily unhappy, but aberrant. She was  born to an English father and Swiss-American mother in Geneva. Following her parents’ divorce in  her early childhood, she was raised by her maternal grandparents in Brussels. In addition, her  married life was short-lived and unstable, for she married three times and even had an extramarital  affair. 

Rather than looking for the perfect partner, one might argue that Brooke-Rose sought that which  would confirm her own identity because she subconsciously wondered who she was. Her  nontraditional early family environment and unstable adult married life might serve as a motive for  her nontraditional storytelling. In his memorial essay, Stuart Jeffries remarks that Brooke-Rose  avoids using first-person narration in her (allegedly) autobiographical novels such as Remake (1996)  and Life, End of. As illustrated by the latter, the aged Brooke-Rose did not yet feel certain about her  identity. Thus, the book does not adopt the individual categorization of the narrator, but presents her  as “the old lady” that represents the collective categorization (Jeffries 2012). This implies that  Brooke-Rose perceived simple and naïve self-identification as overly emotional, and that this 80- something author strove to develop a challenge mindset to face the reality of aging. 

However, not only Brooke-Rose’s personal background but also her intellectual relationships in  French academia encouraged her to develop a literary experimentalist spirit. In the late 1960s, one of  the paragons of French feminist criticism, the poststructuralist critic Hélène Cixous invited her to  teach at the newly founded “Experimental University Centre of Vincennes” (presently, Université  Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis)—a product of the May 1968 cultural revolution in France. She  taught there until 1988, but in choosing not to collaborate with her feminist colleagues, she  developed a literary perspective of her own. 

Brooke-Rose’s artistic and literary propensity sheds light on how Life, End of unfolds. The novel’s  first chapter begins by describing the ways in which an old invalid woman (allusively a woman like  the author herself) cleanses her body. Weakness in the lower body reduces mobility and can even  increase the risk of fall-related injuries. In fact, the narrator is aware of such risks, but even so, this  meticulous description of the situation suggests she keeps her sense of implicit humor. 

The head top leans against the bathroom mirror so that the looking glass becomes a feeling  glass. But what does it feel? This position is for body-balance during the brushing of teeth and  the washing of face neck arms and torso (Brooke-Rose, p. 7; note – as if mimicking the stream  of her consciousness, the author omitted commas). 

When physically healthy, everyday movements such as tooth brushing, body drying, and even  standing without support, are a kind of familiar routine or ritual that can be done automatically. In  contrast, people with physical disabilities need something to maintain postural stability in their most  basic daily tasks. Indeed, as described above, the looking glass acts differently from its normal  function in the way that helps the disabled woman hold steady. It stimulates the sense of touch  through the head skin receptors to control body balance. An alternative way to maintain body  balance is to make “the loins touch the washbasin however cold, or the hand grips the edge, on  condition neither is wet” so as not to fall on the floor (Brooke-Rose, p. 7).  

Aging is unforgiving, but Brooke-Rose challenged it in her own way. A far cry from sentimentalist  when coping with a predicament, she always had patience and courage. Jean-Michel Rabaté,  professor of literature at the University of Pennsylvania, former student of hers at Experimental  University Centre of Vincennes, and her lifelong friend, brings to the fore her inner strength and  resilience. He writes:  

When she died on 21 March 2012 in Cabrières d’Avignon from a degenerative disease of the  nervous system, she had been blind and paralysed for a few painful years. Ever the wry  observer and playful novelist, she documented unflinchingly and as long as she could the  progression of her crippling disease in Life, End of (2006). This farewell to life is devoid of sentimentality. What matters to the ailing woman is the difficulty of relating to ‘other people’,  called O. P. for short. This is always the more numerous group of people who cannot imagine  the hurdles brought to an ailing body by everyday activities and simple needs. A few true  friends remained, as well as the small but crucial comforts provided by music, news and  culture on the radio. Christine wrote an anticipated obituary in this moving memoir about old  age (Rabaté, p. 195). 

Her coinage of “O.P.” reveals that Brooke-Rose in real life suffered not only from age-related  disease, but also from social isolation. This alienation evidently worsened because in her early 80s,  while her legs became disabled, she also began to lose her sight. As one of her best friends, Mr.  Rabaté visited her when she was planning to write an additional chapter for Life, End of and found  out that despite being blind, she was miraculously able to write and read. To his surprise, her  cognitive abilities remained active. Unbelievably, she could write with her index finger on the  notepad and, even erase unnecessary or incorrect words. Needless to say, all these words were  invisible to him. Moreover, her reading comprehension was perfect as well. She read aloud an  invisible letter her sister had sent her ten years earlier. Rabaté quotes her complete dismissal of an  allegation of written message fabrication, “I could never have invented this letter. It is not by me.  This is not my style at all. I recognize my sister’s hand and her way of writing. I could never invent  that” (Rabaté, p. 198). In reality, every page of the notepad was blank but she perceived each page to  be filled with text. Rabaté was amazed that she was able to “read them as if they had been printed in  her brain” (Rabaté, p. 198).  

Just as this episode described by Rabaté suggests that the author Brooke-Rose in her 80s strove to  face and challenge age-related deteriorating physical activity and cognitive health, so too does Life,  End of (Rabaté, p. 198). This novel frequently relates problems that elderly people have with  walking that can cause slips, trips, and falls and which usually necessitate using a cane, a walker  (aka zimmer frame), or even a wheelchair. As in Brooke-Rose’s case, however, vision problems  (visual failure) are likewise serious. Most elderly people contract glaucoma and, in some cases,  cataracts as well. The novel’s last chapter brings up glaucoma, for which the narrator is due to  receive surgery. Aware of age-related hip and eye problems, the narrator mimics naval slang (“aye  aye, sir”) and says half-jokingly to her eye doctor:  

From hip to eye, I eye sir. The glaucous glaucoming eyes now ready for laser treatment – on a  special chair down the stairs and onto a stretcher as imagined once – have had an accident he  says the ophthalmo[logist]), a haemorrhage of the right eye which may have touched the left.  Like an infarctus [this French word meaning “heart attack” in English], like a heart-attack of  the eye, you know. He laughs a lot.

How can the eye have a heart-attack? 

Because it loves, it loves (Brooke-Rose, p. 117). 

The narrator’s response to the doctor’s question is odd – too unique to appreciate – but at the same  time, humorous. No doubt, love can be associated with heart attack. In the online essay, “Is this love  … or an arrhythmia? Your heart really can skip a beat when you’re in love” (Han and Brown 2022),  a cardiologist at Monash University and his colleague argue that this association is scientifically  correct, as illustrated by the phenomenon of love at first sight.  

Brooke-Rose complains about her ophthalmologist’s regular but unsuccessful consultations. Her  eyesight gets worse so that “within three days, fast, the [left] eyelid lowers, as if a defective eye  needs less space (Brooke-Rose, p. 117). A visiting friend is asked if the [left] eye has dropped[,] and  [this friend] says [“]no[”]. At this moment the narrator believes that both eyes work, at least,  somehow. The narrator herself tries to examine whether the eye gets lost, the description of which is  absurdly amusing. To do this, she uses the mirror placed high on the wall of the bathroom. Since she  sits in a wheelchair, however difficult it is for her to avoid falling, she can’t but stand up from the  sitting position. Then she finds out that not only the left eye stays safe, but also that the right eye has  gone blind. The original passage reads: 

A visiting friend is asked if the eye has dropped and says no. The high bathroom mirror …  looked at by standing against the wheelchair locked and hands on the washstand and the  handrail, says otherwise. That otherwise means blindness, unnoticed since the left eye gives  sight … Closing that left eye reveals the blindness of the right (Brooke-Rose, p. 117). 

This depiction can be seen as a fake puzzle which the narrator has concocted, half nastily and half  jokingly, to entertain the reader,.  

Throughout the novel, Brooke-Rose repeatedly depicts the seriousness of elderly people’s everyday  tasks but interestingly, she does so through humor. Her view of aging necessitates provocatively  creative, experimental, and adventurous storytelling. Because of her lifelong enjoyment in the  pursuit of reading and writing, she prides herself on being a good writer. Storytelling techniques, as  such, help open up new perspectives on how different readers might approach the novel, each  considering aging in their own way.  

Commenting in this pseudo-autobiographical novel, literary critic Dennis Cooper, who is active in  online media, writes:  

“The story is very simple. A woman (… a character? a narrator? the author? all three?) … is  getting older. Friends visit, people care, or don’t. Things worsen. She has a couple of falls;  ‘the author collapses, into the character again’. A table with wheels is bought, to make things easier, and it causes a raft of new difficulties. She likes to write, ‘just for fun, for therapy, for  the happiness of wordplay, the deep joy of sentences creating other sentences”, but writing is  getting more and more difficult as time passes” (Cooper, 2006).  

Cooper is right in saying that “The story is very simple” because Life, End of depicts the general  truth about aging. This novel narrates what not necessarily everybody, but most people, inevitably  experience in one way or another.  

Brooke-Rose’s narrative delivery is witty, ironic, and sometimes bitter, but not bleakly sarcastic. Her  powerful language and narrative provide an insightful and implicitly humorous perspective on her  declining health and interpersonal relationships. This narrative style opens up encouraging  alternative perspectives on how elderly people can resist any form of physical retardation.  

In Life, End of, fact and fiction merge so inseparably, as the author intends, that it turns out to be  neither pessimistic nor despairing in the traditional sense. Whilst acclaimed as a literary critic,  Brooke-Rose has also been known as a provocatively experimental novelist. This novel provides no  exception.  

【Bibliography】

Brooke-Rose, Christine. 2012. Life, End of. Carcanet Press. (Paperback & Kindle)  Cooper, Dennis. 2006.

https://denniscooperblog.com/spotlight-on-christine-brooke-rose-life-end-of-2006-2/.

Han, Hui-Chen and Hannah Brown. 2022. “Is this love … or an arrhythmia? Your heart really can  skip a beat when you’re in love”. The Conversation.  

https://theconversation.com/is-this-love-or-an-arrhythmia-your-heart-really-can-skip-a-beat-when-youre-in-love-176537

Jeffries, Stuart. 2012. “Christine Brooke-Rose obituary”. The Guardian. March 23. 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/23/christine-brooke-rose1

Rabaté, Jean-Michel. 2018. “Farewell to Christine Brooke-Rose”. Textual Practice v. 32, n. 2, 193- 199.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/0950236X.2018.1412995?needAccess=true　

https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2018.1412995

（Edited by Yukiko Maezawa）

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