The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureLiterature

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes | Book review
12 March 2016
Ben Craik
Avatar
Ben Craik
12 March 2016

Book review

Ben Craik

The Noise of Time

★★★★★

Release date

28th January 2016

Links

FacebookWebsite

In 1784, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant made an uncharacteristic pronouncement: “Out of the crooked timber of humanity,” he wrote, “no straight thing was ever made.” It was a rare bit of pragmatism for Kant, who was generally more inclined to abstraction and rigidity. The phrase better captures the work of one of his contemporaries, the Anglo-Irish politician and pamphleteer Edmund Burke, and could in fact be taken as a pithy summary of his Reflections. But if Kant’s was a strange endorsement, Burke’s wisdom has found an even more unlikely torchbearer in Julian Barnes, whose newest novel, The Noise of Time, explores its intricacies through the real-life tribulations of the Russian composer, Dmitry Shostakovich.

The book is broken into three parts with each third covering a different “conversation” with power: the first, the result of a damning review in Pravda, the second, Shostakovich’s artistically compromising visit to America, and the third, his forced decision to join the Communist Party. It’s the story of the gradual destruction of a soul, the steady erosion of a man’s ideals against the noise of time, a process that reaches its ironic crescendo as the danger to the composer’s life diminishes.

Its Burkean thrust is captured beautifully in the title of Stalin’s Pravda denunciation, Muddle Instead of Music. Out of the gnashing jaws of power, it’s the latter we’re asked to prefer and the former we ought to deride. But in Barnes its meaning is inverted: what we have is muddle – irreducible, unfixable muddle – and that’s fine. And it’s a mistake to ever expect it to sing as you want it to; it always has been. Burke saw it in Rousseau, Voltaire, and the members of the Third Estate. Barnes sees it in human nature.

For it wasn’t just Stalin who missed the irony; the so-called ‘humanitarians’ missed it as well. Those “who imagined they knew how Power operated and wanted you to fight it”. How like power they were, he reflects, these self-nominated friends. They sympathised, sure, but they demanded too much, and simply imposed a different sort of ideal. That’s what the Romantic hero is: a straight thing to be fashioned.

It’s the magic of a good writer that they help us to live the world’s great ideas. But even amongst them, Barnes stands out, so vivid are his images and so poignant his insights. His works stand among the classics of the postmodern era, and for good reason. His latest, The Noise of Time, is no exception.

★★★★★

P B Craik
Image: Blake Carter (courtesy of the artist)

The Noise of Time is published by Jonathan Cape at the hardback price of £14.99, for further information visit here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Literature

Beach House Summer by Sarah Morgan

★★★★★
Laura Boyle
Read More

The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff

★★★★★
Laura Boyle
Read More

Walk with Me in Sound – the audiobook: A harmonious introduction to a mindful lifestyle

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Midnight in Everwood by MA Kuzniar

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

The Simplest Gift by Stefanos Xenakis

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Mothers, Fathers and Others by Siri Hustvedt

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love by Huma Qureshi

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

The Snow Song by Sally Gardner

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Book review

Ben Craik

The Noise of Time

★★★★★

Release date

28th January 2016

Links

FacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Theatre is totally unique… there’s simply nothing else quite like it”: An interview with Sir Howard Panter as the new cast of Jersey Boys opens at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Sandman
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Eiffel
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Five Days at Memorial
    ★★★★★
    apple
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Five Days at Memorial
    ★★★★★
    apple
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Prey
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Leman Street Tavern launches in the East End
Pete Yorn: An interview on the release of Arranging Time