“The Gustav Sonata is beautifully rendered, and magnificent in its scope. It glows with mastery” – Ian McEwan
With such high praise from critically acclaimed Ian McEwan, renowned for, amongst many prize-winning reads, his novel Atonement inspiring the popular film of the same title, I recently decided to delve into the fictional world of Rose Tremain’s literary landscape. A Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller recently shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, I was eager to delve to make a start on this novel over Easter.
Set in an unremarkable small town in neutral Switzerland during the Second World War, a unique literary vantage point from which to explore anti-Semitic actions and persons, and centred on protagonist Gustav Perle and his close friend Anton, the book is split into three parts: Gustav’s challenging and fractured childhood, the initial meeting of his parents and their early lives together, and Gustav and Anton in their 50’s. This temporal shift is something that I always love within a novel, allowing the reader to contrast the shift in circumstances between characters with ease. In this case, it is so interesting to think about how Gustav’s rather fragile relationship with his mother, Emilie, most likely evolved from her problematic marriage to his father and her uptight and harsh exterior prominent throughout the novel.
Described by The Observer as a “perfect novel,” Tremain intricately blends historical fact with the fictional experience of the protagonist in order to create a convincing and engaging narrative. For instance, it really interests me that the portrayal of the prosecution of Gustav’s father, Erich, for falsifying papers in order to save the lives of a multitude of Jewish people, is in fact based upon a true story, one that Tremain explored through carrying out interviews and personal conversations with the family of a similar officer.
Above all, it strikes me that this is a novel largely focused upon the notion of friendship, an exploration of the limits that this can withstand and how the pressures of our individual ever-changing lives can affect our relationships. At times touching and at others heart-wrenching, this interpersonal aspect of the novel can be applied more universally to our own amicable relationships. For instance, the extent to which one may rely on a friend without taking advantage, or the exploration of inter-generational friendship, invoked by that of Gustav with his late father’s lover, Lottie Erdman.
One of my favourite novels of 2017 thus far, and a relatively short one at that, The Gustav Sonata is certainly a read that I would recommend to anyone over the approaching summer vacation, rich with both historical accuracy and narrative subtlety invoking convincing and personable characters. Happy reading!