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A review by kirabobooks
Ecstasy by Mary Sharratt
3.0
Sharratt brings an utterly human character to life on the pages of her story. Alma Maria Schindler dances and composes and lives vibrantly again in this story of her life. Though I often found myself frustrated at certain intervals, I think it is largely because Alma is written as a person, someone who is fallible, emotional, and imperfect. Such imperfections we see in ourselves and we are quick to judge and criticize these characters when we ourselves are just like them.
At first, one may get tired of the constancy with which Alma is written to be crying or breaking down in tears (in truth, it is with incredible frequency.) This seems trivial and may have you rolling your eyes a bit, "I get it, she's crying again!" But when looking at Alma as a person and everything that she has been through, the tears and the pain and the emotion take on a new light.Reading Gustav Mahler in a more critical light, it becomes apparent (or at least, it can be inferred) that he was, to some extent, abusive of Alma in their marriage.
To speak of frustrations, Alma's character tended to swing back and forth like a violent pendulum throughout the story. One moment she was righteous and self-possessed, the next she was depressed and inconsolable. Her moods changed frequently and her tears flowed freely. It seemed exhaustive that she should be unable to decide on her mood and her feelings, that she, fundamentally, did not understand herself. Yet it becomes clear that these are the actions and behaviors of a person someone who is capable of doubting themselves and their own motives, who is moody and emotional and indecisive. In this regard, Sharratt does a beautiful job of bringing Alma to life.
I will point out that the story becomes less about Alma and more about Mahler the farther in you go. Of course we start with Alma (this is her story, largely,) and we are taken with her until she meets Gustav Mahler. Once Mahler is introduced, however, the story revolves largely around him. This may be an artistic endeavor, as Alma speaks (in the book) of how her life is dependent on Mahler and how her life does revolve around him. It gets a bit frustrating, to say the least, that it becomes a story of Alma in relation to Mahler. She is less of her own person, though this is highlighted strongly in the novel.
To be quite frank, Mahler sucks. I am at least partially familiar with his work, having saved a classical station on my car's FM radio. But his characterization in the novel (perhaps largely intentional,) makes him out to be a sniveling, self-important, belittling misogynist. A condition of their marriage is that Alma must give up composing and music so that he can focus on his own. That alone is appalling, though I suppose unsurprising for the time period. Looking at their relationship through a modern lens, you can't help but cheer for Alma as she has a passionate affair with an architect, Walter Gropius—though, unfortunately, he turns out to be kind of a dick too.
In all, you can't help but feel for Alma. Watching her being abused and manipulated by her husband, seeing her sent to sanitarium after sanitarium to "recover" from her "womanly anxieties," and crumbling for her as she doubts herself and her ability over and over again. You want to shake her by the shoulders and scream, "You are better! You are good and brilliant, just like him! Do not doubt yourself, ever!" But all you can do is shake the book and maybe toss it at the wall.
It is an incredibly evocative story and hauntingly real. There are even echoes of modern crises and misogyny, themes that are still all too familiar. A good read about a brilliant woman who will not be lost to the grip of time.
At first, one may get tired of the constancy with which Alma is written to be crying or breaking down in tears (in truth, it is with incredible frequency.) This seems trivial and may have you rolling your eyes a bit, "I get it, she's crying again!" But when looking at Alma as a person and everything that she has been through, the tears and the pain and the emotion take on a new light.
To speak of frustrations, Alma's character tended to swing back and forth like a violent pendulum throughout the story. One moment she was righteous and self-possessed, the next she was depressed and inconsolable. Her moods changed frequently and her tears flowed freely. It seemed exhaustive that she should be unable to decide on her mood and her feelings, that she, fundamentally, did not understand herself. Yet it becomes clear that these are the actions and behaviors of a person someone who is capable of doubting themselves and their own motives, who is moody and emotional and indecisive. In this regard, Sharratt does a beautiful job of bringing Alma to life.
I will point out that the story becomes less about Alma and more about Mahler the farther in you go. Of course we start with Alma (this is her story, largely,) and we are taken with her until she meets Gustav Mahler. Once Mahler is introduced, however, the story revolves largely around him. This may be an artistic endeavor, as Alma speaks (in the book) of how her life is dependent on Mahler and how her life does revolve around him. It gets a bit frustrating, to say the least, that it becomes a story of Alma in relation to Mahler. She is less of her own person, though this is highlighted strongly in the novel.
In all, you can't help but feel for Alma. Watching her being abused and manipulated by her husband, seeing her sent to sanitarium after sanitarium to "recover" from her "womanly anxieties," and crumbling for her as she doubts herself and her ability over and over again. You want to shake her by the shoulders and scream, "You are better! You are good and brilliant, just like him! Do not doubt yourself, ever!" But all you can do is shake the book and maybe toss it at the wall.
It is an incredibly evocative story and hauntingly real. There are even echoes of modern crises and misogyny, themes that are still all too familiar. A good read about a brilliant woman who will not be lost to the grip of time.