The Noise of Time is a good treatment of the life of Dimitri Shostakovich, the renowned Soviet-era Russian composer. There is a lot of psyching of the composer and a pretty vivid depiction of life for an artist under Stalinist control. I'm having a hard time being too moved by it probably because I had previously read a similar depiction in William T. Vollmann's great work Europe Central, which in my opinion was more engaging and better written. But again, maybe the newness of the subject matter was lost to me. The Guardian called the book "Barnes' masterpiece". At any rate, it certainly is worth a read.
For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/books/review/the-noise-of-time-by-julian-barnes.html?_r=0
For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/books/review/the-noise-of-time-by-julian-barnes.html?_r=0
