Blue Self-Portrait (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
Blue Self-Portrait is written as a stream of consciousness; the rhythm mimics Arnold Schoenberg’s compositional in innovations. Don’t be put off by the long sentences and the absence of chapters, this book is easy to follow. The novel takes place during a 90 min. flight from Berlin to Paris. The main character reflects on a relationship she developed with a composer/pianist she met in a Berlin cafe who is also obsessed with Schoenberg’s self-portrait. Shame, self-doubt, denial, the ability to say one thing and then mean another, saying she simply isn’t capable of caring and then wallowing in shame at her forwardness, her thoughtlessness. This book isn’t without humor, but it’s an ironic, looking-backward humor, as the protagonist struggles, as we all do with self doubt.
*This book is published by Transit Books, dedicated to publishing women writers in translation.
Description
Indie Next Selection
A probing, wild, and fascinating novel.--Publishers Weekly
On a flight from Berlin to Paris, a woman haunted by composer Arnold Schoenberg's self-portrait reflects on her romantic encounter with a pianist. Obsessive, darkly comic, and full of angst, Blue Self-Portrait unfolds among Berlin's cultural institutions, but is located in the mid-air flux between contrary impulses, with repetitions and variations that explore the possibilities and limitations of art, history, and connection.