Some novels lay out a tightly-knitted plot. Others take you on a meandering journey. Both forms can excel at bringing the reader closer to understanding the mind of someone else. Practice, Rosalind Brown's debut novel, falls into the latter category and was a stunning example of just how evocative that form can be. Thanks to Farrar, Straus & Giroux and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I am a Medievalist and studied English literature for my BA. I give this disclaimer because it means I have spent a big chunk of my early adulthood sitting at my desk, desperately trying to have something intelligent and/or creative and/or insightful to say about the Greats, from Shakespeare and Chaucer to Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel. When you go right into a Bachelor degree from high school you suddenly find yourself in a space where you are technically an adult and can determine your own life, and yet you have no idea where to go and what to do. I've always liked thinking of those years as my practice run at life. I had a part-time job and practiced at being an employee. I met new people and practiced at being interesting. I met boys and practiced at being seduced and/or seducing. I fell in love with literature and practiced at being someone with insight. At the time it did not feel that way, but with a good decade worth of hind-sight, it now does. Those early years of adulthood are a mess and yet they are also some of the brightest years, when everything is fresh, new, and dramatic. Rosalind Brown's Practice encapsulated this in a wonderful way.

It is Sunday and tomorrow Annabel has to hand in an essay about Shakespeare's sonnets. Her day is organised, structured, she has a plan. Throughout Practice we follow her as she goes through her day and are given insight into the big and small of her life, the big questions looming over her relationship with the older Rich and over her quest of finding out who she is, and the small of bowel movements, breakfasts, and walks through campus. The novel is told in what I would call vignettes, meaning that they are small bursts of narration, sometimes only a few sentences, sometimes a page and a half or two. They are chronological, taking us through Annabel's day as she thinks about last year, about what she should do tomorrow, about her roommates, and as she sinks away into fantasy. These fantasy moments, in which she has two imaginary companions, the Scholar and the Seducer, were some of my favourites as they were just a beautiful depiction of how sumptuous fantasizing can be. These two companions represent aspects of herself and yet are also doorways into other ways of being and represent her own questions about seduction, passion, and focus. I also really enjoyed the snippets in which Annabel is dealing with the Sonnets and even highlighted a few passages there in which Brown just absolutely nails the joy and frustration of literary analysis. This is a meandering novel, fully focused on the emotional state of mind of the main character. For some, the focus might be at once too narrow and too loose, but considering Annabel's penchant for Woolf, I think it is worth reading this novel as you would one of hers: with close attention and a certain emotional abandon.

This is Rosalind Brown's debut novel and I love how confidently and sharply she has crafted Practice. From its form, those vignettes or snippets, to its honest writing, think detailed descriptions of female anatomy and desire, the whole novel quickly took a hold of my mind. As I said above, for me the whole novel felt like an excellent display of how much we practice our lives as early adults. In the process of that, Brown does tackle a number of issues that may be difficult for readers, specifically disordered eating and relationships that feel a bit off, age-gap wise, and perhaps manipulative. Brown also dives very comfortable into everything physical, from Annabel's sexual encounters and deepest fantasies, to her bowel movements and yoga sessions. Annabel is also not always likeable. She is very driven to do something, achieve something, plan her day perfectly and optimize herself, somehow, and it makes her cold and detached. This is the point, however. This endless practice at life prevents her from living. What got me most, as an example of this, was a brief moment when Annabel loses something she cherished. The spiral of loss and anxiety this triggers reminded me so much of my younger self, who still echoes within me in times of stress. In many ways, I am the target audience for Practice and so it comes as no surprise that I enjoyed it very much. I think its no-nonsense look at a young woman's practice runs at being a person is fascinating and I can't wait to read more by Rosalind Brown in the future.

Practice is a deeply evocative, emotional novel, perfect for those who have held themselves to high expectations, who love literature, and who just want to feel something.

This is like an episode of Seinfeld without the humor.

Ok I know that sounds maybe unfun, like Seinfeld the writing is perfect and absolutely nothing happens. The rising action/climax in this text is the breaking of a mug.

I think because I was an English student both for my BA and MA that this practice of writing a paper is oh so relatable. The routines you try to put into place to be successful, the love song to coffee (honestly these parts in the book were my fav), the random thoughts and imaginative rabbit trails that take place about anything but your subject matter, and trying to say something new about a text that has been read and written about for centuries (Beowulf I’m looking at you). All of this is so relatable.

However as Annabelle drifts away from her routine and the writing of her paper I too found myself drifting away in the reading of the text. The less regimented she became, the harder it was for me to keep reading. It felt a little art imitating life or I guess art imitating life.

I appreciated a lot about this novel. Like Annabelle’s life the prose is spare and precise and the imaginative bits (Scholar/Seducer and the Oxford environment) lush. Brown does a great job of embodying the text to suit the different vibes Annabelle has during the day.

I’m not sure how I felt about the episode with Grace(TW: anorexia and disordered eating) and the fact that what we see of Annabell seems at the very least disordered eating and the need for control.

Annabelle and Rich’s relationship gives me the ick but I also know so little about the characters outside this moment I’m not sure if I’m meant to feel this way or if there is more to it.

This is not a novel for character development. It’s very much the inner thoughts and actions from sunrise to sunset of one character.

Perhaps this is the authors practice, as the character practices being present in her one day.

Do I recommend this? Sure. It’s 100pages and the prose is worthy alone. It is a quirky little book though and I don’t think will be for everyone.

Thank you @netgalley and @fsgbooks for my copy. This is out now! #practice #netgalley #rosalindbrown

I've seen this one described as a "woman thinking" novel, and that about says it all. While this type of novel can be overwritten, I thought this was pitch perfect. It brought to mind CHECKOUT 19 and made me a little nostalgic for those undergrad days doing nothing but thinking. I think you have to be in the right mood for this one, but if you are, it will hit just right.

Wow. This was such a singular reading experience and I loved every second of it. The mundanity of it. It was absolutely brilliant.

4.5/5 Stars

This is one of those books that I’m not sure how to review. You see, on the one hand, the prose here is truly beautiful. On the other hand, I’m not sure I understood it. Well, okay, there isn’t a whole lot going on here. Annabel needs to write this essay on Shakespeare’s sonnets. Her professor has given the students no instructions here: no questions, no guidelines, no themes, no direction, and nothing else to help them devise this essay. Just ‘write an essay on Shakespeare’s sonnets’ and that’s it. Obviously, there must be tons of varying premises one could discuss, theories one could defend or strike down, which makes it all the more difficult to decide which of these topics to choose.
Plus, this is Oxford, after all, and Annabel is studying the classics, which means hundreds, thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands have written essays about Shakespeare’s sonnets before her. I can easily see where trying to find something new, something different, something that will set her aside from the other students could lead to being totally blocked regarding what to write. It is, in fact, what makes this a very universal story, and perhaps this is the whole point of this book.

Brown chronicles Annabel’s dilemma over the course of one Sunday, the day before the essay is due. Slowly, hour by hour, even moment by moment, starting early in the morning, before dawn, until the last bits of the day have ticked along to its end. This inner struggle is accompanied by her many thoughts about the people she is in contact with, and those that have been in her life in the past. While we learn a great deal about Annabel, we also only see what she allows us to see. Furthermore, the wanderings of her thoughts bring us into contact with the imaginary characters that follow her thought processes. All this sounds very strange, and it feels totally natural and understandable.

I’m not sure what else I can say about this book. Its beauty is certainly something to recommend it, and once again, I got the feeling that I should start rereading it the moment I’d finished. There’s a real gentleness here as we delve into all the nooks and crannies of Annabel’s inner self, as she works towards making this deadline. We also begin to wonder how, if at all, she’ll settle on what to put into her essay, while her family and friends and lovers are always on the periphery of her life and existence. There were a couple things here that disturbed me, but I think Brown wanted them that way. For all of this, I think I’ll just cut this review short, and say yes, this was a very unusual novel, but one that has a whole lot going for it, and points to Brown being a very talented writer. If you’re looking for contemporary, literary fiction that borders on the speculative, you’ll probably love this book. I was captivated from the start, and I’ll give it a very healthy four and a half stars out of five.

"...she knows the essence of the poems she would write: small, opaque, complex. About nothing in particular: Producing not so much a meaning as an effect." And indeed, this debut novel is small, sort of opaque, aiming for complexity, about nothing in particular - a single day in the life of Oxford student Annabel, who unfortunately goes by the nickname Annie - though it is rarely used - about nothing in particular - except for the way that Annabel assesses everything in her tiny world, comprised, for a good portion of this slim novel, in her room at college at Oxford, in the winter, with an essay about Shakespeare's Sonnets soon due. We are nearly entirely in Annabel's mind and body - as she wakes, prepares for her early morning work, reading various of the sonnets, contemplating all that they mean, jotting down words as she searches for what her essay topic might be, aware of her thoughts, and of her body, needing to pee, arousal, and more, and the way she turns nature to her own purposes. A scholarly setting and work, it was quite fascinating to be with Annabel's thoughts as she contemplates the deep meanings of the sonnets she reads, considers Shakespeare not as long dead, but alive and hungry and lustful and bisexual. The compelling minutia of a hardworking university student who has far more access to her thoughts than perhaps most at that age - what comes across later is that perhaps she's not a natural student, that she is training herself for this life of the mind, that she is, if not secretive, than close to it, keeping her phone off while she works (everyone should really do this!), interacting nearly not at all with those in her hall, texting only when she must, avoiding the question her older boyfriend has asked her - whether he should come to Oxford for the upcoming weekend, rent a hotel room. She has either learned or naturally wants to keep her worlds, and her thoughts compartmentalized, wanting the life of the mind even as her body wants more. It is something more than mere self-consciousness at work here. She eats healthfully, but perhaps wishes she could lose a few pounds, does yoga, does not drink much, or socialize much, seems to doubt the intentions of others - perhaps Ciara, a fellow student also writing the essay on the sonnets, would actually like to be friends with her. What is most compelling about the book is its quotidian focus, bringing to life the muchness of it when we actually pay attention to ourselves and our minutes and hours, our ways of doing things. Whether her imaginary characters - perhaps two sides of herself - that she labels the Seducer and the Scholar - two homoerotic men whose lives she imagines on her long afternoon walk, or in her room - work, I'm not sure - I found they took me out of the story, even as their story, that she has fabulated, was fairly interesting - their purpose, though, in such a short work, I haven't worked out. Perhaps the study of the Sonnets leads to her many sexual fantasies, perhaps Annabel, who seems rather lifeless, even as she heeds every aspect of herself, has always had such sexual fantasies - and for a young woman who seems to want to live a life of her own devising, it is interesting that the fantasies were submissive-dominant ones, she as the submissive. It's a lonely place that Annabel lives, even as it gives her pleasure, even as she seems a mostly happy student, though her happiness is particularly muted. I both enjoyed being there with her, as well as knowing that being there with her would only last 208 pages. What I especially liked about the book is this - while it's more traditional than perhaps the subject matter might lead one to believe - it didn't have stunts, and the author stayed true to her belief that a reader would find Annabel interesting enough, or her actions and thoughts interesting enough, that the reader would be willing to remain there with her. I look forward to what Brown writes next.

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for the arc.

I suspect many of us have dithered while writing an essay and so will recognize Annabel's struggle to focus on Shakepeare and his sonnets, Whether that internal discussion makes a novel is another story, This has snippets and distractions and it's all very inside. An interesting read that I admired more than enjoyed, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction,

thank you to fsg and netgalley for a digital copy of this, releases june 25th! practice follows a day in the life of annabel, a student studying english at oxford. we’re with her as soon as she wakes up early in the morning on a winter sunday in 2009, until she goes to sleep. she has a deadline for an essay on shakespeare’s sonnets looming over her her head, an older boyfriend she needs to make a decision about, and a routine that she is desperately trying to stick to.

the novel is a brief yet intimate look at what it means to be in a body, how the forces of desire and productivity influence what we do with our days, and how easy it is to get distracted. i typically love a no plot just vibes book and i really enjoyed how detailed and descriptive the writing was, but felt a bit detached from annabel’s personality at times, maybe due to the third person perspective. i did really relate to the way she strives to stick to a routine and enjoyed her appreciation for the small, mundane habits of every day life (making coffee, taking a walk, doing yoga). i can understand the comparisons to martin riker’s the guest lecture, but practice didn’t have quite as much interiority.

parts of this reminded me of the fantasy scenes in claire-louise bennett’s checkout 19 - the imaginary characters of the scholar and the seducer accompany annabel throughout her day. i preferred the sections that were focused more on annabel’s activities and writing process than the sections about those two characters, but i understand that they demonstrate her struggle to balance academics with desire. my personal tastes as a reader just always tend towards more literal depictions of what’s going on rather than metaphorical ones.

overall, shows signs of a promising writer but not quite the book for me!

“And every day she has to catch and deal with little wisps of resistance: but broadly, there it is, the routine is well established, it gathers and directs all her various strengths and susceptibilities.”

I’m not sure who this book was for but I know it wasn’t for me. I think there are storylines where it’s appropriate to say it takes place over the course of the day. It’s possible to do this without it being tedious but unfortunately I feel that this story was.

One day in the life of a student who's trying to focus on writing an essay about Shakespeare's sonnets, who is also very much distracted by anyone, anything and a flurry of thoughts and fancies that flit through her mind.

The form for this was so interesting and inventive. Most of the small reflections are a paragraph or very short pages as she reflects on something, tries to focus on some distraction in hopes of being able to channel some epiphany on how to proceed on her essay. But to be honest, it felt very claustrophobic, maybe a little too real. Since we're only ever in her mind surrounded by her thoughts, the direction of the book is all over the place and changes are sporadic. Some parts were far more interesting than others, the masturbation and fantasies were really amusing and funny, but a lot of other parts for me were not. I guess in that way it was very realistic in it's portrayal of somebody trying to get something done and also really trying not to get something done.

I wish I also liked Shakespeare more. I can't recall any of the sonnets that I've ever read. I really only remember his plays and couldn't really probably appreciate some of the deeper references that I'm sure Brown was making, for instance are the seducer and scholar references to some recurring characters from Shakespeare sonnets?

I enjoyed the ending more. There was a period in the middle where it really dragged with the fantasies and all of the fixations but it could also have been that I finally got more used to being in her headspace and just went with the flow.

This just didn’t coalesce for me. I think the book is very confused and underwhelming. I would have preferred had it stayed a stream-of-consciousness take, but then it veered into a different story between THE SEDUCER and THE SCHOLAR that I found uninteresting. Disappointed

Practice is a book that takes place over the course of one day. It's centered on the thoughts of Annabel, a student at Oxford, as she prepares to write an essay on Shakespeare's sonnets.

I wouldn't have expected to enjoy reading about the minutiae of one's regular day as much as I did, but it was surprisingly comforting and fascinating. This isn't the type of book with page-turning action sequences. Instead, you get a front row seat into a young scholar's imagination, fears, and introspections.

I really enjoyed this book and kind of wish I knew what happened to her the following day and beyond. For anyone who loves a unique, character-driven novel, this would be an excellent choice.

From the description I wasn’t sure if I would love this, but then it was like eating a mug of hot chocolate with a spoon. So pleasing. Beautifully earnest. The descriptions of yoga and needing to pee… revelatory. I was highlighting all over the place.

Annabel is a student at Oxford trying to write a paper about Shakespeare's sonnets.

PRACTICE is very much in the vein, structurally, of novels like 'The Guest Lecture' and 'The Novelist'—tightly inside the mind of one character, listening in while they work through their creative and intellectual process. I was interested to learn that Rosalind Brown's academic work focused on the "the concept of discipline, particularly self-discipline, and...cultural fascination with the forms of self-discipline practised by writers." I liked how thinky it was—even when blown off course of her routine, the thoughts of this very particular and almost acetic 19-year-old stayed rarefied and surprising. I liked the attention to the exigencies of hydration, and how even the sticklers and hardos have messy romantic entanglements and longings.

Spiritually and stylistically, I think it's very contemporarily British: PRACTICE reminded me a lot of the work of Sarah Moss and Claire-Louise Bennett. (I'm wondering how this is going to play in the US.) One of my favorite parts of PRACTICE was how the main character, even when she's focused on writing a paper, can't help but add details and scenarios to the lives of two characters she's made up in her head, called only 'Scholar' and 'Seducer,' who are living much more dramatic lives in an imaginary Oxford parallel to hers. Fun!

Rosalind Brown’s debut novel is getting some glowing and gushing pre-publication buzz, and I was lucky enough to receive a review copy from the publisher. As someone who has spent much of the past 20 years in and around academia, I was drawn to the premise: it sounded like a slightly different kind of campus novel. Brown is undoubtedly a gifted writer, but ultimately I think the premise was a little thin to maintain an entire novel.

Let’s get one thing out of the way, just so it’s clear: Brown is a very good writer, and there are plenty of excellent passages sprinkled throughout Practice — moments of wry humour, great observation and/or description. The characters who enter Annabel’s day are very well drawn, and one of them almost gave me whiplash, she was so like someone I know (in terms of cadence, style, etc. — it was uncanny).

As someone who has experienced a great many days at college, struggling to get to grips with an assignment, I found Brown’s protagonist’s experiences relatable and often amusing. The author does a very good job of writing the sense of frustration when a concept or direction feel aggravatingly just out of reach, constantly slipping out of your grasp. Or getting derailed, as the unrelated thoughts of a young mind bubble up and intrude — it can be so hard to focus on work, when you’re hungry, horny, and tired.

"She is underwritten by this: this catacomb of her own bleak, confusing desires."

At the same time, the novel’s momentum dropped precipitously when I was about a third of the way in. It becomes clear why a single day in the life of a university English major is not a common/popular premise for a full-length novel. Similarly, if nothing really happens, the inner thoughts of a college student (brilliant or otherwise) aren’t as riveting as they might believe. (Perhaps this book is an attempt to illustrate the quiet narcissism of people in their early 20s.) The novel also features some modern literary fiction tropes: confusing affair with an older man? Check! Blunt and “shocking” language about body parts and sex? Check! It’s either a bit bland (affair); or it’s just not as affecting as it’s maybe supposed to be (use of the word “c*nt”, for example).

In some ways, this novel is more an interesting writing exercise than it is an interesting novel. Brown does a very good job of making Annabel a somewhat engaging character, and if you’ve lived a day anything like the protagonist’s — whether at university, or remote working, or just struggling to focus on a deadline while the rest of your life intrudes — then you’ll likely find plenty of moments that you can related to and sympathize with. There are also a fair number of amusing and clever turns of phrase. It’s just, at the end of (Annabel’s) day, I didn’t feel especially satisfied by the read.

A cautious recommendation, then, if you’re looking a something short and tightly-focused in scale, if not particularly gripping in terms of plot. Despite this not really landing for me, I am nevertheless interested to read whatever Brown writes next.

I think this book was good. I requested it because it sounded interesting, and it was. The cast of characters was interesting and all so different from one another.