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Julian Barnes's first novel since he won the Booker Prize for [[The Sense of an Ending by Julian BarnesThe Barnes|The Sense of an Ending]] is a fictionalised biography of Russian composer Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906–75). Knowing Barnes's penchant for stylistic experimentation, though, this was never going to be a straightforward, chronological life story. Instead, as Barnes so often does, he sets up a tripartite structure, focussing on three moments in Shostakovich's life when he has a reckoning with Power (always capitalised here). The title phrase helpfully spells out what the book is all about: 'Art is the whisper of history, heard above the noise of time.'
Each of the three major sections begins with a variation on the same line: 'All he knew was that this was the worst time.' With that pessimistic take on Dickens, Barnes seems to be saying 'hey, things could always get worse' – and for Shostakovich they seem to. We start in 1936, when the composer first manages to make himself unpopular with the Stalinist regime. He stands by the lift on the landing outside his apartment, overnight case by his side, just waiting to be taken away. Maybe if he goes willingly his wife, Nita, and their children, Galya and Maxim, will be spared. Yet the police never come for him.
This is closest in subject to Barnes's ''The Porcupine'' (1992), an Eastern European novel with a political theme. I've now read all but a few of Barnes's books, and to me this one doesn't particularly stand out in his oeuvre. ''The Tsar of Love and Techno'' by Anthony Marra is the better recent book about artistic expression under authoritarianism. I'd be most likely to recommend the Barnes only to those with an existing interest in Shostakovich or Russian history. All the same, it's a successful short parable of art imprisoned by politics.
Further reading suggestion: Barnes fans should be sure not to miss [[Arthur and George by Julian Barnes|Arthur and George]] and [[Levels of Life by Julian BarnesLevels Barnes|Levels of Life]].
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