The Noise of Time
As seen:
By Julian Barnes
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1 review
In May 1937, a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now. And few who are taken to the Big House ever return.
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A gentle, quietly written novel about the life and integrity of Shostakovitch. It's also about the relationship between politics and art and felt, at times, quite discursive. It gave me much food for thought without being at all preachy. If you're looking for a pacy plotline or a mindless holiday read then this is not for you, but if you fancy reading something beautifully and intelligently written just for its own sake, or have an interest in music, art or Russian politics in general or Shostakovitch in particular then this is a fabulous read.
