Great danes

   

    I was interested to read Barbara's comment that despite being a fan of Rose Tremain's, she gave up on Music & Silence as she couldn't get on with it. Happily, I loved it, but it took a long time to read, and although the chapters are short, it repays an investment of a solid hour or two - rather than doing a few pages here and there - as I found that's when the book really began to sing.

    The novel is set at the court of King Christian IV of Denmark in the years 1629-30. The King, world-weary, beset by financial problems and infatuated with his consort, the faithless Kirsten, employs an English lutenist to join his orchestra and, with the musician's angelic countenance and "eyes the colour of summer air", to be his confidant and protector. Despite this patronage, Peter Claire finds little at court to sustain him through the long, dark winter, but when he meets Emilia, one of Kirsten's retinue, the face of Denmark suddenly brightens.

    I might best describe this as a glittering, spider's web of a book. The spiders are Christian and Kirsten, the flies, Peter and Emilia. While there is scheming and predation on the one hand, so there is ingenuity and serendipity on the other. Kirsten, the "Almost Queen", is a marvellously dreadful character, grotesque and compelling; demanding, manipulative and blackly comic, she's not unlike Miranda Richardson's Queen Elizabeth I in Blackadder. Christian is plagued by responsibility, a chronic shortage of funds which requires him to pawn Iceland, and a conscience troubled by the death of his boyhood friend. He struggles, and despite wanting the best for his country he finds prosperity and stability hard to achieve.

    But the web is not all about entrapment and striving - it's bejewelled with dew, as it were, in the form of still-lifes, vignettes, episodes and moments which in their beauty, imagination and precision bring the book to life. There is a touch of magical realism and pleasingly eccentric references to calligraphy, buttons and jam as minor motifs throughout the story, but beyond all the quirks and foibles this is quite fabulous, rich, beautifully rendered stuff, and I was truly sorry to reach the end.

Comments

[Harriet]

I really loved this book when I read it a few years ago. My favourite of Rose Tremain's, definitely. Nice review -- thanks.

[Carole]

What a lovely book this sounds! I recently read The Road Home and enjoyed her writing style very much.

[Simon (Savidge Reads)]

This does sound like an absolute treat. I am yet to read any Tremain and may have to start with some of her short stories to see how I get on. I do have some of her longer works like Restoration but not this book, so now of course its the one I most want!

[N]

I must agree with Barbara - however not only did I give up on this book, I hurled it across the room in disgust.

Have studied music and literature, I bought this novel, having been pursuaded by the title and blurb, thinking it would artfully interlace both my passions, and oh, how wrong I was! Admittedly, Tremains 'musical interludes' are not soooooo bad, but the characters are so atrocious (a collective of one-dimensional fools and worse) that I simply couldn't continue.

Considering I generally admire your taste in books, Cornflower, I wonder whether we read the same 'Music and Silence'?!

[Nan]

And I was thinking you got a couple new dogs!

[Jill]

I thoroughly enjoyed Music and Silence when I read it some time ago and I also enjoyed The Road Home. However the book of Rose Tremain's that I have been most impressed with is The Colour (2003). It is set in 19th century New Zealand at the time of the gold rush. The characters are interesting and complex and have come from across the world. They are struggling to find a sense of place in an alien and at times hostile landscape. Like characters in other Rose Tremain books they are flawed, believable and synpathetically drawn. I highly recommend this.

[Cornflower]

N, your point about the one-dimensional nature of the characters is a very interesting one. To my eyes the book read as almost a fable (hence the last sentence of my post), and so I saw the characters as the stock "wicked witch"/"handsome prince" etc. kind which accounts for the lack of roundedness.

[Cornflower]

I read The Colour a few years ago and enjoyed it very much, too.