Ravel: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Jean Echenoz (Author), Linda Coverdale (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Prix Goncourt–winner Echenoz's fifth novel to be translated into English covers the last 10 years in the life of French composer Maurice Ravel, who in 1927 was 52 years old and at the height of his fame when he toured America. Echenoz is most keen on recording the human detail: Ravel's impeccable ablutions and wardrobe, his dainty size, his reading of Joseph Conrad's The Arrow of Gold and his triumphant tour across the United States. Upon his return and at the request of a friend, Ravel offhandedly composed his masterpiece, Boléro. However, lapses begin to intrude in his memory and eventually debilitate him. After harrowing brain surgery, Ravel died in 1937. Like his well-mannered subject, Echenoz's prose is stylish and delightfully soft-pedaled, expertly conveyed by Coverdale—leaving the sensation of a life lived exclusively for the creation of art. (June)
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From Booklist
One cold 1927 morning, perfectly natty Maurice Ravel embarks on his only North American tour. Dozens of changes of day, evening, and bed clothes accompany him, representing a fifth of his constantly evolving wardrobe. During the six-day cruise to New York, the insomniac composer manages one full night's sleep. In America, he is feted and coaxed to perform, though his own music exceeds his pianism (he detests practicing). Sometime after returning home, he composes Bolero as a self-challenge to make invariant repetition appealing by means of only tone color and dynamics; Toscanini wildly varies the piece's pace, and Ravel has last words with the conductor. He composes two piano concertos, one a left-hand-only work for World War I amputee Paul Wittgenstein, who embellishes it shamelessly in performance; Ravel is again furious. Slowly, his personality changes to indifference. He loses physical and verbal capabilities. Ten days after a 1937 craniotomy, he dies. Echenoz employs almost no dialogue and nothing that departs from known facts in this tiny miracle of a biographical novel, which begins dryly and builds to a shattering, but still contained and elegant, emotional climax, like a Ravel masterpiece. Olson, Ray

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: New Press (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595581154
• ISBN-13: 978-1595581150
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #220,122 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Minimalist fiction?, May 29, 2007

By	Thomas F. Dillingham (Columbia, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jean Echenoz's Ravel is simple, precisely pruned for minimum gestures that achieve maximum effects, and unfailingly elegant. The narrative traverses Maurice Ravel's tour of the United States in 1927 and his continuing decline (signs of which appear before he embarks and occur now and then during the trip)toward his untimely death. The author makes no attempt to explore or explain the "mysteries" of musical creation or the nature of "genius." This is not a large novel about the psychology of the artist, nor is it really a small novel about the same. It delicately constructs a portrait of a man who has lived very nearly with no human relationships of any depth, who has depended upon the generosity and patience of friends and admirers, almost parasitically, and yet who somehow manages to remain sympathetic or at least interesting enough to be worth reading about.

What is most impressive about this novella (it is called a "novel" on the cover, but the text of the narrative fills fewer than 100 pages of generously spaced large type, so I think of it as a novella) is the control exercised by the author--every detail feels properly placed after careful weighing to assure its appropriateness; nothing is excessive, nothing is out of place. The literary mastery is undeniable. Even more--the success is that though the work is so carefully and artfully composed, it never feels precious or excessively studied. And finally, it has sent me back to Ravel's music, especially the lovely chamber works. And I know that I will read the novella again (one of the virtues of a short narrative--it is easier to contemplate re-reading it than is possible with some of the great loose and baggy monsters one also loves.
So why 4 stars? It is lovely--an elegantly carved cameo--but minor.

5.0 out of 5 stars Exact, elegant and descriptive writing, February 4, 2009

By	DONALD G. FOX "Santee Sioux" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jean Echenoz exhibits a great mastery of descriptive detail in this intelligent and entertaining novella. However, a great deal of credit belongs to Linda Coverdale for her excellent work in translating this work from the French language. The descriptive talents of the author allow the reader to feel as though he has an actual glimpse of the world through Ravel's own exacting perception. Whereas some authors might use detailed description in this way as a gimmick, M. Echenoz is indeed a master that never seems to go too far in his use of the technique. There is always a bit of analytical distance that comes about the detailed focus of the person of Ravel, but the author also presents the musical man as a unique and fastidious individual who requires order, convention, and respect of the world around him. Ultimately, while the tale ends somewhat somberly with the intellectual and mental struggles of the composer, the brief and intimate walk with Maurice Ravel as a visionary man of his times makes this novella a small masterpiece.