Thursday, February 5, 2009
Mosaic
Mosaic: a description for the type of novel that I just listened to at work. The novel was "Austerlitz" by Winfried Georg Sebald. It was about a narrator telling the story of a friend finding out he'd been part of an orphan train from Nazi occupied Czechoslavakia to England at age four. At any rate, needless to say from the description 'mosaic' (found on the back of the cd case), the story is not told straight. But it unfolds amidst the other pieces of the man's life. I'm not sure I am into this type of novel, though "Shalimar the Clown" was a mosaic to a certain extent. But this style of novel is teaching me not to be so rigidly attached to THE STORY LINE. I think the story line is a method of control. And it takes more skill to tell the story through scattered pieces which then come together in the end. Not a task that "Austerlitz" completely succeeded in, by the way. But the novel contains the best description of someone in a depressed state that I've ever read. And it's an active description of depression, which is hard to pull off.
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Interesting. I generally like novels that aren't necessarily linear in the storytelling. The first one I read was "Slaughterhouse Five" and it opened my eyes to a different way to tell a story. A way that might just be more effective for some.
For another one that succeeds, IMHO, check out "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood. There are three different timelines going at the same time. You realize early on that some of the same people are involved in all three and it creates suspense as you turn pages to find out how the people from the early timelines end up in the later ones.
I tend to be prejudiced when it comes to her writing (although I hated the end of "Robber Bride"), but I think John really liked it, too.
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