Welcome to this month’s book review. Please note I have to divide my review up into several portions, as devoted readers may have noticed, because my iPad doesn’t like this blogging site. Please be patient...
BOOKS
THE NOISE OF SILENCE, by Julian Barnes
Being the life and times of one of Russia’s greatest composers, Dimitri Shostakovich. Written in the form of a biographical novel, and drawing deeply on Elizabeth Wilson’s definitive study, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, here Julian Barnes has written what many feel is one of his best books.
Born in 1906, Dimitri lived his entire adult life under communism, and much of it under the baleful eye of uncle Jo Stalin. Hence his work was constantly subject to the scrutiny of his censors, who often pronounced his work reactionary and working against the spirit of the glorious revolution. Time and again some of his greatest achievements were proscribed and suppressed, and he often teetered on the edge of being sent to the gulags or even taken outside and shot.
But like his literary colleague Mikhail Bulgakov, he escaped the worst punishments because Stalin harboured a sneaking respect for his work. The compromises he was forced to make to stay alive and free, however, took a terrible toll on his mental health. Despite this he still created some of the most important musical works of the 20th century. If you want the quick version, read Barnes’s book; you will not be disappointed.
THE STATEMENT, by Brian Moore
A German war criminal has been hiding out in France since the end of the war, only able to do so because of the protection of a Catholic Church who think that deep down, he isn’t such a bad man. But a group of nazi hunters feel otherwise, and bypassing a stultified state that isn’t really interested in crimes committed forty years ago, takes matters into its own hands. Assassins are sent to kill him, but our antihero didn’t live this long without being on guard every moment of the day and night...
I was aware of the work of this prolific English writer for a long time without ever giving him a try. I’m glad I did. This is a superior thriller, well written and told with great pace and flair. Recommended.
GENESIS, by Sebastiao Salgado
Born in 1944 and scarcely without a camera in his hands ever since, Salgado started travelling the world in his 20s, recording its trouble spots, its war zones and famines, its wildernesses and those who live in it: the plants the animals and the tribes who live in some of the most remote and inaccessible places on the planet. In so doing he has gained the respect and admiration of human rights and environmental groups around the world for his work in publicising the plight of these endangered cultures.
The book itself is massive, lavishly produced coffee-table production of the kind I rarely indulge myself in these days. But I’m glad I did this time. There are over 500 monochrome pictures, beautifully printed and every one a revelation of the incredible diversity and fragility of the planet we call home. Go on, treat yourself.
SOUL MOUNTAIN, by Gao Xingjian
In the 80s, as China slowly climbs out of the pit of the Cultural Revolution and begins to rebuild itself, a young man goes in search of a mystical mountain that may provide some meaning to his life. Robert Louis Stevenson once said “It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive”, which might be the subtitle for this extraordinary book, which helped secure the Nobel Prize for literature for Xingjian in 2000.
Using a bewildering and extremely skilful array of literary techniques, telling his story in the first person, 2nd and third, in order express different facets of his personality, and discussing history, politics, mysticism and magic along the way, our “hero” wanders around a China which seems to be waking as if from a deep sleep. But all along, there is the quest for “Soul Mountain” which nags away at him whatever he is doing. Will he find it? Does it matter? Read on...
Please see subsequent blogs for movie review.
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