Book Review - The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain

What is the difference between friendship and love? Or between neutrality and commitment? “Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem only a distant echo. An only child, he lives alone with Emilie, the mother he adores but who treats him with bitter severity. He begins an intense friendship with a Jewish boy his age, talented and mercurial Anton Zweibel, a budding concert pianist. The novel follows Gustav's family, tracing the roots of his mother's anti-Semitism and its impact on her son and his beloved friend.

Moving backward to the war years and the painful repercussions of an act of conscience, and forward through the lives and careers of the two men, one who becomes a hotel owner, the other a concert pianist. The Gustav Sonata explores the passionate love of childhood friendship as it is lost, transformed, and regained over a lifetime.” Ref: Booktopia.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rose Tremain’s bestselling novels have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence) and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Sacred Country); Restoration was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and was appointed Chancellor of the University of East Anglia in 2013. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes. Ref: Booktopia.com

REVIEW:

The story was an interesting insight to the life of citizens of Switzerland, a neutral country, during the Second World War. Tremain has cleverly made a connection between the main character Gustav’s character and that of his country. Gustav was a placid, quiet boy/man that observed and was involved in the turmoil and ups and downs of the lives of those around him: his mother Emilie, his childhood friend Anton Zweibel and his parents and the wartime experiences and death of his father. Until the closing chapters of the novel he never showed much emotion or experienced much in life. The base of the story is the childhood and lifelong friendship between Gustav and Anton. Neutrality was a major theme in this cleverly written story. It was an easy read and kept my interest, wanting to know the full story of Gustav’s father’s death and the demise of the adult Anton. The Book club members I spoke to on the Kangaroo Island trip seem to have to have finished the book, which usually indicates the book held their interest. Some were frustrated with the blandness of the main character but enjoyed the insight into the neutrality and lives of the Swiss in the 1940s.


Review written by Margaret Cassidy