"In Brown''s precise, elegant prose, we watch Annabel go through the carefully plotted rituals of her day . Most impressive is Brown''s depiction of having an ongoing fantasy that stretches out for years and that you slip into and out of at odd moments of the day . It rings deeply true to life, in a way I have never quite seen an author conjure before ." --Constance Grady, Vox "Absorbing . [Brown] is such a vivid writer . Practice offers a refreshing midsummer''s break." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR "Rosalind Brown''s tight, sly debut, Practice , [is] a welcome gift for those who dither about their dithering. It presents procrastination as a vital, life-affirming antidote to the cult of self-discipline, while also giving the reader a delicious text with which to while away her leisure time .
What Annabel senses, and Brown beautifully drives home, is that it''s the strange mental collisions between the thinking mind and the wandering mind that yield the most interesting results." --Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic "Brown renders what she does do with such rigor and lucidity that the rhythm of her actions become a reflection of Shakespeare''s poems themselves, as well as the sort of fine-grained textual analysis she aspires toward . Many of the book''s most beautiful passages speak to the subtle, mysterious alchemy of scholarship . Practice beautifully illustrates a tension at the heart of not just loving reading but loving writ large." --Meara Sharma, Los Angeles Review of Books "There''s a genius in the idea of using Shakespeare''s sonnets, which form an exploration of desire deeply and messily concerned with questions of gender and selfhood, to illustrate the complicated process of a young woman figuring out who and what she is . A novel written for readers , which may seem a silly distinction to draw; all novels are written to be read. But Brown appeals specifically to those who have found themselves shaping their own identities around the words of others , and then coming to wonder whether that process has honed their individuality or lessened it . By reading, we practice being alive.
" --Talya Zax, The Washington Post "It is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as Rosalind Brown''s Practice does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write . Exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic reading . Practice conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do ." --Brian Dillon, The New York Times "Brown has delicately articulated one of the less-discussed pleasures of reading: a kind of anti-reading, a momentum that gathers not in spite of distraction but because of it." --Dan Piepenbring, Harper''s " Practice is one of those surprise charmers that initially appears to be microscopically focused yet encompasses its main character''s startlingly intimate, wide-ranging thoughts and feelings--both scholarly and libidinous--about life, love, literature, solitude, self-discipline, physical and intellectual appetites, and more . Ms. Brown''s novel contains a kingdom in its pages, probing nothing less than a reader''s relationship with a text and how to satisfyingly reconcile one''s mind and body." --Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal "[ Practice ] is a novel about the possibilities, and the limits, of attention, or even the life of the mind itself .
It is a book you can read in a day, and also the most convincing and compelling portrait of a single consciousness that I have come across in recent memory." --Emily Temple, Literary Hub " [A] sensuous and erudite debut . Brown''s prose soars . Lovers of the written word will be impressed. This is a work to be compared with Marilynne Robinson''s beautiful and boundless Housekeeping, and a writer to be watched with great expectations." -- Library Journal "[A] gorgeously written debut . Brown''s attentiveness to the suppleness of language and the poetry of everyday life makes this slim novel absolutely transporting . A brilliant and keen work about being fully alive.
" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A fascinating, beautifully wrought theatre of the mind that reminded me by turns of Virginia Woolf and Nicholson Baker." --Olivia Laing, author of Everybody: A Book about Freedom " Each sentence is a taut, considered work of art . Every thought and distraction . is carefully described, and the result is hypnotic as the reader is drawn into Annabel''s world. Almost Virginia Woolf-like in its focus on the passing of time and somewhat reminiscent of the poetic prose of Eimear McBride ( A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing , 2014), this novel announces a unique and exciting new talent in British fiction ." --Alexander Moran, Booklist " [A] gorgeously written debut . Brown''s attentiveness to the suppleness of language and the poetry of everyday life makes this slim novel absolutely transporting . A brilliant and keen work about being fully alive .
" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "I had a lot of fun with Practice by Rosalind Brown. I think only she and Proust can get me into the space where I''m happy to read about someone walking across a room for all these pages. You''re reading about reading; you have to be really good to do that in a compelling way." --Helen Oyeyemi, author of Parasol Against the Axe "Exerts a strange fascination . Practice is funny, intense and strangely gripping; after all, it''s the non-events--stray thoughts and ignoble bodily needs among them--that form the texture of a life." --Suzi Feay, Financial Times "Annabel aspires to ''understand subtle, fragile things.'' This might be an apt description of Practice too . A touching portrait of an ordinary life and ''what happens when repeatedly nothing happens.
''" --Camille Cassidy, The Spectator "A novel spectacularly committed to a young woman''s intellectual and bodily appetites, written in exact and tender prose." --Sarah Moss, author of The Fell "If Practice is a novel about wrestling with discipline, it''s equally about the generative opportunities of distraction and a meditation on the wellsprings of creativity . Brown treats us to some firecracker phrases . Brown''s skill in turning words is evident ." --Katherine Waters, The Telegraph "Initially at least, Practice feels like the musings of a creative writing student--but that might be the point of this fine debut . in pithy yet heightened prose. The student''s methodical approach to her work and life is brilliantly shattered by Brown''s ability to throw a shocking line into proceedings, so that what begins quietly becomes a compelling insight into the recesses of the human mind ." --Ben East, The Observer (UK) "From the narrowest and most confined of premises, Rosalind Brown has conjured a novel as big as a world.
Reading this book is a strange and shimmering joy; a glimpse of a miracle ." --Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13 " Practice totally won me over, not least on account of its many passages of exquisite writing." --Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time " Practice won me round with its good writing. A beautifully written meditation on the contentments of reading. Rosalind Brown feels like the real thing." --Andrew Miller, author of Pure " Practice is rich and precise and intelligent . I started counting up paradoxes: a novel about restriction that stages beautiful questions about fantasy; a novel limited to a single day that swoops among time frames; a novel where containment allows for bravura stylistic power . It''s a unique novel, and Rosalind Brown is a unique - and wonderful - novelist.
" --Adam Thirlwell, author of The Future Future.