This is a short story collection that traces 40 years in the life of a flautist named James. A novel-in-stories, we follow James and his on-again-off-again relationship with Anna as he moves around between Nashville and Buffalo and Philadelphia -- and then always back to somewhere in Missouri. It is a wonderful way to create a fictional world--through stories that can be read in any order but that in their entirety become the novel.... I read backward.
I’m not sure I’ve ever read a short story collection that is a novel before-- but I really loved the experience. Are there any others? There must be, but this was my first and I was bowled over. I want to write one too... the form allowed the story to really take flight without the driving through-line narrative that I have come to loathe.
Another reviewer mentioned the main character is somebody who is a seeker--or someone who is not satisfied with jumping hoops and wants to live large. And yet, he is also puzzled at how to do this. But I would argue that James is not lost since it is always music that tells him where to go. Music sets the pace in all the stories, And the instruments--his flute, the Indian drum and Indian bamboo flute, wooden flutes, pianos and a bagpipe (wasn't there a sax too?) populate the stories with James, Anna and his friends.
Music itself might be the main character anyway . Each story is guided by one particular piece of music that sets story in its cadence, tone and color. This was especially so in the Raag Yamaan, I also loved the Indian flute when I was young. I also love this below duet between Jean Pierre Rampal and the great Subramaniam on violin.
Here is Raag Yamaan performed by Ustad Rashid Khan.
The title story might be the one that will stick with me the most. The stories are filled with poetic images (not surprising since author is a poet) as well as this music that sets the pace. And Listening to Mozart had many unforgettable moments from the music he imagined to that parrot--who sings Mozart arias! The whole thing had a dream journey hallucinogenic feeling. Partly because the 60s was so trippy but the strange new age (?) religion from Indonesia and the anger of James, just when I thought this must be a memoir... the surreal aspects would take me back into the dream, when paintings pour out of their frames and the way music exists in the moment and is then gone forever. Like a dream.
Comments