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  • Articles by Sonali

    Guardian Live Book Event: The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes


    The uneasy dynamic between power versus self expression is examined in 'The Noise of Time', Julian Barnes' latest novel. The novel looks at Russian composer Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich who lived and worked in Soviet Russia under the totalitarian regime of Joseph Stalin during the Cold War. Barnes discussed his novel at a recent Guardian Live event at Islington Assembly Hall interviewed by Guardian critic Hermione Lee. He spoke to a packed auditorium, offering insights into his writing process and background details to the story. 

    'The Noise of Time', like Marlon James’ ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings', is a mix of fact and fiction, all framed by history.  Barnes breathes life into historical facts by articulating the composer’s thoughts and feelings. The end result is quite focused and this pocket-sized book (179 pages) can be readily consumed in a day or two. 

    The book has received much praise, hailed as sophisticated, elegant and deep, and the literary equivalent almost of another Shostakovich symphony. It also provides a portrait of the artist. Barnes was asked whether this is a non-fiction biographical novel. He replied that ‘all novels are biographical – it means the study of life’.

    He said writing is an instinctive process and he didn’t set out with a specific category in mind. He added that perhaps the Noise of Time is a trans-genre novel. A few of the facts surrounding Shostakovich’s life emerged after his death including a story about a man standing by a lift in his Leningrad apartment block, waiting to be taken to the ‘big house’ by Stalin’s police. This is the novel’s starting point.

    The book is divided into three chapters set in 1936, 1948 and 1960 respectively. Each year marks the occasion when Shostakovich has ‘a conversation with power’. 

    He is summoned to the ‘big house’ for questioning after his opera ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' receives a bad review (1936), most probably written by Stalin, published in Pravda, Soviet Russia’s state run newspaper. Shostakovich is mysteriously spared from being sent to a work camp (a gulag) in Siberia, unlike many of his fellow musicians and musicologists. But his music is banned for a while. He later returns to favour with the regime and composes the Song of the Forest to support a propaganda campaign, winning the Stalin prize in 1950.

    A significant piece of Cold War history is revisited in chapter two. Shostakovich is selected (against his will) in 1948 to represent and promote Soviet Russia and its values at the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace in New York.  Here he reluctantly gives a speech (written by someone else) denouncing his countrymen Prokofiev and Stravinsky; his hero. Both composers have defected to the US from Russia. Shostakovich is referred to as Stalin’s parrot by composer Nicolas Nabokov (Vladimir’s cousin). Barnes is able to capture the tense atmosphere and awkwardness of this situation. 

    Shostakovich appears to be a collaborator in Stalin’s terrible regime and is widely regarded as a coward by his colleagues. He is reported to have struggled with his conscience and guilt throughout his career. In ‘The Noise of Time’ Barnes offers the composer the opportunity for redemption. He highlights that Shostakovich is in an impossible situation: he must collude with the regime in order to ensure safety for himself and his family. Or face a certain death. The novel also points at the simplicity of the Western attitude to reality of life in Soviet Russia and criticises Western triumphalism. 

    The book captures the sense of living in a claustrophic environment where artists and intellectuals are persecuted. It reminds me of the stifling atmosphere of Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell. Comparisons have also been made with J.M.Coetzee’s Disgrace when the central protagonist David Lurie is also racked by guilt and regret.

    I’m not familiar with his music but was intrigued by Shostakovich’s predicament, and especially by his ability to compose under these oppressive circumstances. He went on to write fifteen symphonies and many film scores, including the music for the Russian film adaptation of Hamlet in 1964 (he was a huge fan of Shakespeare’s plays), although he never completed another opera. 

    Julian Barnes mentioned that as a writer he isn’t interested in set dressing, preferring instead to be inside someone’s head. We certainly become aware of Shostakovich’s inner turmoil as his thoughts churn over and over again in his mind. At times, and especially in second chapter, there’s a sense of inertia. I guess, if this is ever adapted into a play, the set design will be sparse, involving a few props. 

    It transpires that Julian Barnes read Russian at University and in 1965 embarked on a tour of Eastern Bloc Europe under 'the Iron Curtain'. This was a rather daring expedition which has no doubt informed this work. We’re given snippets of 20th Century Russian history over the terms of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev. But Barnes doesn’t go into any detail about the Siege of Leningrad which seems slightly amiss. Neither does he say much about the tyrant Stalin. 

    Nonetheless this is is an engaging story, offering an original perspective taken from Shostakovich’s unusual and nuanced circumstances. At times it seemed like I was reading his diary, revealing his real thoughts on living under the grim reality of a skewed Utopian vision.