There are a number of ways to interpret the knuckle-dragging loops in Rachmaninov’s masterpiece – life affirming? ominous? – and this mirrors what we’ve come to expect in a Toews’ novel: a balancing of light and dark, of humour and pathos, of richness and repetition. It makes sense that this bit of music looms large in Miriam Toews’ devastating new novel, All My Puny Sorrows, a book about one woman’s emotional journey with a sister who is desperate to commit suicide. 5 in G minor, a piece of classical piano that is at once virtuosic and oddly crushing in its intensity. As I write the opening paragraph to this review, I am listening to Rachmaninov’s Prelude op.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |