The Master by Colm Toibin
October 31st 2006 08:58
I went to this book with every kind of malevolence--Henry James is not somebody I admire and it was shortlisted for the Booker prize. Years ago, when I was a kid I persuaded a friend that buying Ben Okri’s The Famished Road would be a good thing because it won the Booker prize. I have never been able to live down the disgrace. So, when Colm Toibin came up with the obsequiously titled The Master, I was not enthused. It came in “a James season” along with Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, which eventually won the Man-Booker( probably for its satire on Lady Thatcher than for any of its literary merits). I did try reading The Line of Beauty and put it away after a few pages which did not help matters at all.
But now that I have read it, I am glad I did. It is clear that Toibin admires Henry James, but he is clearly not beholden to him. It tracks the moods of James after his play Guy Domville had become a resounding failure and shuttles in time to illuminate James's important creations as he struggles to spring back from the failure.
Toibin tries to emulate the same sensitivity that is the hallmark of James but without James’s predilection for dubious prose and excess of feeling. The narrative is smoothly controlled and the writing perpicacious.
In many ways, this novel is like The Master of Petersburg of J.M.Coetzee, which followed Dostoevysky as he is preparing to write The Possessed. That novel is one of my all time favourites and I found Coetzee’s Dostoevsyky bland, not the blazing prophet of The Possessed whom I cherished. I don’t know if the portrait is faithful to James because I do not care for him. Probably this helped. Probably that’s why I found the portrait of an author who battles inner demons to produce a work of art, engaging and interesting.
The Master by Colm Toibin
But now that I have read it, I am glad I did. It is clear that Toibin admires Henry James, but he is clearly not beholden to him. It tracks the moods of James after his play Guy Domville had become a resounding failure and shuttles in time to illuminate James's important creations as he struggles to spring back from the failure.
Toibin tries to emulate the same sensitivity that is the hallmark of James but without James’s predilection for dubious prose and excess of feeling. The narrative is smoothly controlled and the writing perpicacious.
In many ways, this novel is like The Master of Petersburg of J.M.Coetzee, which followed Dostoevysky as he is preparing to write The Possessed. That novel is one of my all time favourites and I found Coetzee’s Dostoevsyky bland, not the blazing prophet of The Possessed whom I cherished. I don’t know if the portrait is faithful to James because I do not care for him. Probably this helped. Probably that’s why I found the portrait of an author who battles inner demons to produce a work of art, engaging and interesting.
| 47 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
