William Boyd: Love is Blind, 9780241295946, C format Paperback, Viking / Penguin Random House UK, publication date: September 2018
(no German
edition announced yet)
Whenever I
have the privilege of reading the proof of an upcoming novel by William Boyd, I
know hours of reading pleasure lie ahead of me.
“Love is Blind” was no exception, in fact I felt downright sad when I
finished the novel and could not stop thinking about it. The ending had something to do with it but I will not say
anymore.
There is no
other living British author, to my mind at least, who pulls you into the life
stories of his main characters describing the affairs of the human heart quite
as intensely as William Boyd. He did this with “Any Human Heart” and “Sweet
Caress”, both on my shelf of all-time favorite books and he does it again with “Love
is Blind”.
At first I found it more difficult than usual
to strike up a relationship with Brodie Moncur, the Scottish piano tuner whose
life unfolds over the next 370 pages. But this changed quickly and I was hooked. The novel spans from 1894 until 1906 which is
probably the reason why I sometimes felt like reading a classic but Boyd's superb use of language is another reason to select this category.
The tragic love between Brodie Moncur and Lika Blum, a seductive Russian opera singer of lesser talent but of greater beauty has an almost Chekhov like character. They first meet when Brodie left his native Edinburgh for Paris to work for the Scottish piano manufacturer Channon, a once in a life time chance for him to escape his preacher father's cruel regiment. When he is asked to tune a Channon piano for the famous piano player John Killbaron, Brodie sees Lika for the first time and is smitten by her beauty and aura, a feeling that does not change when he discovers that Lika is living with Killbaron. His obsession with her and their secret affair takes him from Paris to Geneva, from Nice back to Paris and St. Petersburg, Vienna, Trieste, Biarritz and Edinburgh, a place he thought he would never see again.
Boyd is a master storyteller; the book has several well drawn out characters painting a lively and intimate portrait of society at the turn of the 20th century across Europe. Another five stars Rating from me for William Boyd and “Love is Blind”:
The tragic love between Brodie Moncur and Lika Blum, a seductive Russian opera singer of lesser talent but of greater beauty has an almost Chekhov like character. They first meet when Brodie left his native Edinburgh for Paris to work for the Scottish piano manufacturer Channon, a once in a life time chance for him to escape his preacher father's cruel regiment. When he is asked to tune a Channon piano for the famous piano player John Killbaron, Brodie sees Lika for the first time and is smitten by her beauty and aura, a feeling that does not change when he discovers that Lika is living with Killbaron. His obsession with her and their secret affair takes him from Paris to Geneva, from Nice back to Paris and St. Petersburg, Vienna, Trieste, Biarritz and Edinburgh, a place he thought he would never see again.
Boyd is a master storyteller; the book has several well drawn out characters painting a lively and intimate portrait of society at the turn of the 20th century across Europe. Another five stars Rating from me for William Boyd and “Love is Blind”:
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