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A review by nini23
Solo Viola: A Post-Exotic Novel by Antoine Volodine
challenging
dark
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.25
Originally published as Alto Solo in French in 1991, this work by a French author who goes by the pseudonym of Antoine Volodine is building up a body of forty-nine works of post-exoticism. Solo Viola, to my understanding, was among the first of these efforts and some others are under his other heteronyms. Volodine's other heteronyms include Lutz Bassmann, Manuela Draeger and Elli Kronauer. A considerable number of his books have been translated into English, including [book:Bardo or Not Bardo|26196148] and [book:Eleven Sooty Dreams|55479257], which I intend to seek out. Solo Viola is translated by Lia Swope Mitchell.
The foreword by Lionel Ruffel describes post-exoticism as "an imaginary literature, coming from elsewhere and going elsewhere, a literature that proudly claims its status as foreign and strange, that proudly claims its singularity, and that refuses any attribution to a specific and clearly identifiable national literature."
For me, this slim novel read like a work by Kurt Vonnegut, Dubravka Ugrešić, László Krasznahorkai and those satirical Russian masters like Mikhail Bulgakov who masterfully disguised criticism of state. Set in the fictional land of Chamrouche, the population is held sway to the message and power of the Frondists, the baffoonary leader of the Frondists is a past B-list actor called Balynt Zagoebal. The Frondists appeal to the base, xenophobic, boorish instincts; whipping the crowd up into a frenzied slathering mob against negs, spadgers, the literati, classical musicians, emigrants etc. This is of course very much relevant to our world today. Thirty years after this book was first published, populism, fascism and the far right are once again rearing their ugly heads around the world.
I like the elements of the fantastical tale: humans which turn into birds and vice versa, a clown in a circus with necrophobia, members of a classical music quartet, three men just released from prison, a defiant literary writer. In their courageous defiance to authoritarian tyranny also lies a quivering terror, the climactic scene and aftermath is all too realistic.
Solo Viola is challenging to read for several reasons, I think Volodine is what might be termed a 'writer's writer.' Fellow writers will likely appreciate better his experimental format and style, the changes in perspective, the sentence structures, the looping narrative. Reading this takes concentration but in the right frame of mind, it can be an intellectual and visceral treat.
Thanks to University of Minnesota Press and Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The foreword by Lionel Ruffel describes post-exoticism as "an imaginary literature, coming from elsewhere and going elsewhere, a literature that proudly claims its status as foreign and strange, that proudly claims its singularity, and that refuses any attribution to a specific and clearly identifiable national literature."
For me, this slim novel read like a work by Kurt Vonnegut, Dubravka Ugrešić, László Krasznahorkai and those satirical Russian masters like Mikhail Bulgakov who masterfully disguised criticism of state. Set in the fictional land of Chamrouche, the population is held sway to the message and power of the Frondists, the baffoonary leader of the Frondists is a past B-list actor called Balynt Zagoebal. The Frondists appeal to the base, xenophobic, boorish instincts; whipping the crowd up into a frenzied slathering mob against negs, spadgers, the literati, classical musicians, emigrants etc. This is of course very much relevant to our world today. Thirty years after this book was first published, populism, fascism and the far right are once again rearing their ugly heads around the world.
I like the elements of the fantastical tale: humans which turn into birds and vice versa, a clown in a circus with necrophobia, members of a classical music quartet, three men just released from prison, a defiant literary writer. In their courageous defiance to authoritarian tyranny also lies a quivering terror, the climactic scene and aftermath is all too realistic.
Solo Viola is challenging to read for several reasons, I think Volodine is what might be termed a 'writer's writer.' Fellow writers will likely appreciate better his experimental format and style, the changes in perspective, the sentence structures, the looping narrative. Reading this takes concentration but in the right frame of mind, it can be an intellectual and visceral treat.
Thanks to University of Minnesota Press and Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.