https://blog.georgefabish.com/tags/psychological_portrait/ Recent content in Psychological_portrait on George's Blog Hugo en-US Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://blog.georgefabish.com/reviews/the-noise-of-time/ Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:33:36 -0500 https://blog.georgefabish.com/reviews/the-noise-of-time/ <p>Julian Barnes wrote my favorite book of 2020 (The History of the World in 10 and 1/2 Chapters) so I was looking forward to reading a newer book from him. This one was published in 2016 and is not quite a historical fiction and not a true autobiography but more like a story that follows the life of a Russian composer (Dmitri Shostakovich) under Stalin shortly after WWII. Barnes then fills in some missing pieces, drawing out a psychological portrait of a neurotic and somewhat spineless composer under the iron fist of the USSR. All in all, this book had some really good moments but came nowhere near the mastery (IMO) of what I was expecting from Barnes. Where Solzhenitsyn approaches the USSR regime as a prisoner in a gulag this is from the perspective of Russia&rsquo;s most popular composer who was also in constant fear of the gulag. This helps to paint a picture of what life was like to those who were &ldquo;lucky&rdquo; enough to be outside the gulag. I really like Barnes&rsquo; writing style, but I would not put this is on a must-read list.</p>