I read quite a few books over the holiday break, and I’m now quite busy with work, so my next few entries will be short, and mainly concerned with my book review back-log.
Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht.
This impressive novel is set in Russia and Switzerland, and tells the story of a young Russian student, Razumov, who is caught up in revolutionary politics in the early years of the 20th century (i.e., before the actual Russian Revolution). He ends up having to leave Russia after a high-ranking government official is assassinated, and goes to Geneva. There he mixes with an emigré community of revolutionaries, who have quite the wrong impression of his true nature.
There’s not a lot of “action” in this novel; much of what happens is simply dialogue and characters meeting other characters. Nonetheless, I found it decidedly compelling. The characters are well-drawn, and the situations they find themselves in are full of tension and interest.
I read quite a few books over the holiday break, and I’m now quite busy with work, so my next few entries will be short, and mainly concerned with my book review back-log.
Bach, flute sonata in B minor, BWV 1030.
The assassin of the title is Demeitrios Tsafendas, who killed the South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966. The piece is by Henk van Woerden, and is a miniature biography of Tsafendas. Tsafendas was diagnosed as schizophrenic, and manic-depressive as well, and it’s pretty clear that his crime wasn’t motivated by any particularly deep political consciousness. He died in a South African mental hospital. His life involved an eye-opening amount of travelling: he was born in Mozambique, spent early childhood in Egypt, was a seaman on American transport ships during WW2, and also spent time in Portugal, Germany, Greece and the Middle East. He also lived in South Africa, of course. The main motivation for all this roaming seemed to be a desire to find a country that would accept him and which he could also be at home in.
There are other good things in this issue too. I particularly liked the short story by Hanif Kureishi, and the article by Diana Athill about being editor to V. S. Naipaul. The photo essay has Romanian AIDS orphans as its subject.
Ishiguro writes beautifully. The course of the novel is an extended narration of events by the artist of the title, Masuji Ono. His voice is distinctive, being very measured and precise. The beauty of the book is that through this slow, careful narration of events, one that is superficially dry and emotionless, you can pick up the self-justifications that Ono is telling himself. You can perceive his growing realisation that his behaviour was probably suspect, and that his past is also liable to prejudice his family's future. Highly recommended.
Anyway, this special, bigger-than-normal issue of the magazine is full of good writing. I don't think much of the editor's excuse for not including any Aboriginal writing, but what's there is mainly excellent. There's an extract from Peter Kelly's True history of the Kelly gang, which recently won the Booker prize, and quite a bit of other fiction. There are also interesting non-fiction pieces, individuals reflecting on some aspect of their interaction with Australia. I found the account of a Darwin-based journalist tracking down an Aboriginal artist who lives in a very isolated camp in the tropical jungle particularly good.
Finally, it's clearly worth mentioning Peter Conrad's piece, just so I can deny its relevance to my personal situation. He left Tasmania in the 1960s, confident that he would never return, to go to university in England. He's now an Oxford academic. He's interesting about Tasmania and how restricted and stultifying he thought it. He's probably absolutely right, but it still comes across as rather patronising.