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(More customer reviews)Oh what a brilliant, brilliant novel Rana Dasgupta's Solo is! Books like this are the reason I love to read. I think Rana Dasgupta is a virtuoso of the first order, an author who has boldly created a real work of mastery and originality.
Solo has a haunting quality that continues to stay with me. I can't seem to find the words to describe the book's impact on me. It moved me; it repelled me; it gave me pause; it raised familiar questions concerning reality and dream, thought and mind, what dies or what remains. It is a stunning reading experience, rich in narrative and poetic in prose. It is a novel I am eager to return to again and again because I know I will make new discoveries with each reading.
Solo is both a vehicle for philosophical and psychological musings and a sweeping narrative through history and culture. Literary analysis may engage the book's meaning but will fail to illuminate the spell it can cast on the willing reader. It is a novel of science, of ideas, of poetry, of music. It is written with dreamlike lyricism and emotional intensity, a novel in two movements ~ "Life" and "Daydreams."
"Life" represents the story of Ulrich, a one hundred year old blind Bulgarian man, nearing the end of his life, living minimally and alone in a decaying public housing apartment in modern day Sofia. Through the care and generosity of neighbors, Ulrich has survived. His primary entertainment is his television which keeps him informed of every kind of "modern wisdom." When not listening to his television, he reflects on his life, often wondering if his life was a failure. Ulrich's story is intertwined in a century of Eastern European history, riotously paced from the Bulgaria of the Ottoman Empire, through World War II Nazi and Russian occupations, the post war Communist block and finally an independent Bulgaria struggling to rise from its third world status in the Balkans. His story is one of pathos and though he has failed as a musician, as a chemist, as a lover, as a husband and as a father ~ now as a very old man considering his death, he believes failure and success are irrelevant.
Ulrich's mind is particularly aware during his last days and his spirit has expanded. He "can sense the great black ocean of forgotten things, and, ignoring his beginning and end, he casts off into it. Everything he has known has drained, over time, from the actual world into this ocean and he is blissful in the endless oblivion." He has spent a great quantity of his time in daydreaming, an activity which rejuvenates and sustains him in the "nonsense" of the world around him. He has poured his spirit into these daydreams and while his self may be negated at his death, his dreams will remain.
And this is the introduction to the second movement, "Daydreams," a metaphysical leap from a life lived to a life dreamt. The shift is abrupt and confounding and the unsuspecting reader may be assaulted by the different, discordant edginess to the storytelling. It took a while for me to find the narrative rhythm again and to spot Ulrich's influence, but once I did, my reading experience was heightened. Although Ulrich disappears from the story, "Daydreams" represents the fictions he had cultivated in his mind. The story is now fierce in the telling, moving furiously through a violent post-communist Eastern Europe of gangsters, sex, drugs, crime, prostitution, power, money, fame. It is an ugly, gritty and raw world and however horrible the reading experience becomes, I found it difficult to tear my eyes away. The characterizations are so well delienated, that each character represents a view of life that is far from stereotypical. It is a view of the world that is at once real and imagined, from which there is no easy escape.
Wheras the narrative of the first movement is precise and deliberate, the narrative of the second movement is more chaotic, becoming distant and close at the same time. What I mean by that is that the reader watches the action from a distance without Ulrich's participation but Ulrich's presence is never the less felt. It's smart and effective, making the denouement all the more powerful when Ulrich appears again.
There are so many qualities about Solo ~ the originality, the imagination, the intelligence, the depth ~ that its effect on me is intense and lasting. I know this novel is not for everyone and many will disagree with my opinion but still I must give it my highest rating.
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