Customer Reviews

Music in a Foreign Language

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A beautiful piece of craftsmanship, this book will satisfy both brain hemispheres of the intellectual reading public. The technique is amusing and resonates harmonically throughout the book. I found myself playing the game of guessing how the next chapter would begin BEFORE I turned the page. The philosophical premises are thoroughly stimulating and if you have what it takes to stay out there in the ethersphere for the duration, you will be surprised at the conclusion. Crumey is the kind of intellectual provocateur that will keep your synapses humming happily for weeks after you close the book.

I ran across this book while desperately seeking something to read at my favorite lunchcounter-used book store (Easton, Pennsylvania). Having just finished singing in Latin in a choir, the title caught my attention.

The story kept my attention sharply focused with its plot device of nesting layer upon layer, character upon character, yet ultimately resolving the plot threads. I confess to having used a numbering scheme to note whether the story was a character's line, or the storyline of a character in a book the character was reading, and so on. I'm delighted to see Crumey has continued to write, and will certainly be seeking these out as well.

Andrew Crumey's book, Music in a Foreign Language, is by far one of my favorite books of all time. His manipulation of language and plot draws the reader into his intricate fictional world. The structure of his novel is wonderfully complex; each story nested within the other, forming a non-linear narrative that is a pleasure to read. If you are a fan of intricate, complex works of genius, do not let this work go unread. Crumey's other works are also excellent, but they do not compare with this masterpiece.

This book stayed in my head long after I finished reading it. It's very strange, not always easy to read, but it's surprisingly atmospheric and the characters stayed with me. Quite an achievement.

Writers in the United Kingdom are an insular bunch. Very few engage with the innovations in novel writing from the Indian subcontinent or continental Europe. Crumey is one of those that does. He sits easily in the European tradition.

This, his first novel, is Borgesian in nature. Set in an alternative United Kingom where communism falls just as it does in Eastern Europe, the story is a love story, a thriller, an excursus on writing. The novel is like a mutli-layered Chinese box. There are various levels of reality. Particularly enjoyable are the stories of Galli, a fictitious writer in the manner of Italo Calvino or Borges.

Continually enjoyable. Wonderfully written, this novel won the Saltire Book award for the Best first Scottish Book of the Year.

It is very rarely that someone bursts onto the literary scene with something new to say, and a distinctive voice.

Crumey is one such person, and he continues to improve.

If you enjoy Music in a Foreign Language, try Pfitz.

Readers of Steve Erickson, especially fans of Amnesiascope, or Donald Bartheleme may also like to give Crumey a try.

Among the best novels I've read in the last few years