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nadinekc 's review for:
The Rehearsal
by Eleanor Catton
My initial DNF at page 100 was all on me. Picked up where I left off a few weeks later and found myself in a 5 star book. Its sly tone and structure are so subtle and feel so effortless that I see no literary scaffolding holding up this oddly mundane world. And in a first novel, yet!
The novel starts with what’s become such an overdone subject it runs the risk of being banal - a sex scandal between a high school girl from a girls' school and her young jazz band teacher. And it is banal in this book - the teacher is fired but takes another job in town, and the girl is desultorily counseled and kept home from school for a while, but like the teacher, seems unaffected and even bemused by the whole thing. After a flurry of speculation, the town quickly grows bored with the story, and all that remains are the resentments of the girl's school friends that she didn’t give them any juicy details - if there are any - no one knows. Kind of an amusing fizzle.
The story then mainly moves to the Theatre Dept. of the local Art Institute, where prospective first year students are ‘auditioning’, not through standard, prepared monologues, but by being made uncomfortable and then watched by the instructors for some indefinable ‘thing’ that makes them an actor, rather than a liar. And that’s often how instruction continues in the program.
Life is all one big rehearsal in this book - whether it’s literal for the young actors and musicians, or re-living memories for the teachers. The ‘rehearsals’, large and small, private and public, often go sideways but there’s always much amusement and dismay along the way. Characters say the strangest things (Like Stanley’s dad, who attempts to bond with his son over dirty jokes. The bonding doesn’t work, but the guy is funny.) This book put me in a strange, fun and dreamy headspace.
The novel starts with what’s become such an overdone subject it runs the risk of being banal - a sex scandal between a high school girl from a girls' school and her young jazz band teacher. And it is banal in this book - the teacher is fired but takes another job in town, and the girl is desultorily counseled and kept home from school for a while, but like the teacher, seems unaffected and even bemused by the whole thing. After a flurry of speculation, the town quickly grows bored with the story, and all that remains are the resentments of the girl's school friends that she didn’t give them any juicy details - if there are any - no one knows. Kind of an amusing fizzle.
The story then mainly moves to the Theatre Dept. of the local Art Institute, where prospective first year students are ‘auditioning’, not through standard, prepared monologues, but by being made uncomfortable and then watched by the instructors for some indefinable ‘thing’ that makes them an actor, rather than a liar. And that’s often how instruction continues in the program.
"So", the Head of Acting said. "What happens at this Institute? How do we carve up the strange, convulsive epileptic rhythm of the days? What violence is inflicted here, and what can you do to minimize the damage?"One of the things I love about this novel is the way the acting tutors at the institute use ultra-dramatic language in such a blasé and nonchalant way - it's as much a way to entertain themselves as a teaching method.
Life is all one big rehearsal in this book - whether it’s literal for the young actors and musicians, or re-living memories for the teachers. The ‘rehearsals’, large and small, private and public, often go sideways but there’s always much amusement and dismay along the way. Characters say the strangest things (Like Stanley’s dad, who attempts to bond with his son over dirty jokes. The bonding doesn’t work, but the guy is funny.) This book put me in a strange, fun and dreamy headspace.