One aspect of the contemporary glut of fiction is book
titles have evolved into a mindless flow.
Looking through lists of upcoming publications, award winners, recommended
books, etc. and the titles all start to blend together. In epic fantasy, for example, one can take a
couple token words, add a pronoun and article or two, and you’ve got the next
published series. The Axe of the North, Dragon’s
Fire, The Oath in Stone, etc.
could easily exist, somewhere, such is the surfeit of fiction (and maybe they
do, I haven’t checked). Overall this is
very unhealthy for readers, and the industry in general. Quantity heavily outweighing quality, good
perhaps even great books with titles that would have been standout fifty years ago
are now being overlooked in the milieu.
I can’t help but feel Ian Macleod’s 2008 Song of Time is one such novel.
The name of a symphony inherent to the story (like “Cloud
Atlas” in David Mitchell’s novel of the same name), Song of Time is the story of Roushana Maitland. Half Hindi and half Irish, she grows up in a
near-future Britain only slightly more evolved from our own. Heavily affected by the death of her musically
gifted brother, Roushana takes up the violin with fervor. Other tragedies striking, both personal and
global, she uses them to fuel her drive, or at least distract, going on to
become a world class musician. And that
world is changing around her. Europe
goes through major political transformations, nature rears its ugly head in
continental fashion, and technology only opens further possibilities. Now in old age living alone by the Cornish
sea, Roushana has made the decision to continue living even after her mortal body
has passed. But when a young man washes
ashore, things change.
Like the work of Herman Hesse, Song of Time is a novel that flows effortlessly. The prose a gurgling brook, you’ve cruised
through one hundred pages and are part of the characters’ lives before you know
it. And Roushana’s story is worth it; her
personal development in a bi-cultural home, in music, and in an evolving world involve
the reader for how honest and real they feel. This makes the fact Song of Time is not a
character study so interesting.
As Macleod switches back and forth between her present tense
in old-age and the past-tense recollections of life, Roushana is front and
center. Yet it is her backdrop which
most strongly influences the direction of her life. From the death of her brother due to a new
disease called white plague to a fresh outbreak of war between muslims and
hindus in India and Pakistan, environmental catastrophes to major political
reform, her life is tossed on the seas of change. (It is, in fact, only at the end of the novel
that Roushana seems to take matters into her own hands and make a decision in
the face of things.) The title indeed epic,
Macleod would seem to highlight how strongly we are impacted by the transformations
happening around us—products of our time and individual circumstances—more than
individual choice or agency. Most novels
of such import use history to illustrate their points, which makes the realistic
application of future history in Song of
Time interesting; Macleod’s future is wholly believable, which leads to…
In The Summer Isles
Macleod brilliantly portrayed how subtly conservatism can creep into government
and personal life to restrict human autonomy in oppressive fashion. Not an overt description of tyranny like
Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four, the
novel portrayed a situation wherein a charismatic right wing leader came to
power and instituted, both formally and informally, a more restrictive political
program. Feeding off people’s fears of
the changes happening around them, it was supported by a public who in another
era may have been resistant to such limitation.
Though right-wing politics are only one facet of Macleod’s near-future
setting, Song of Time nevertheless portrays
parallels to current politics in the West.
Published a decade ago, the novel is prescient of the current shift
toward nationalism, conservatism, and in general closed borders and locked
doors happening in significant sectors in the West. The shift in the novel is portrayed in France
(a country in which the most recent election featured a conservative candidate who
was a very strong contender for president), but such conservatism is likewise seen
more broadly, from Trump to Brexit, Poland’s culturocentric self-isolation to
Hungary’s conservative hardening, which makes for a discussion-provoking real world
backdrop to the novel.
In the end, Song of
Time is an engrossing meditation on the meaning of life in a world even more
dynamic than ours today, through the lenses of nature, politics, culture, and
technology—basically all the elements which influence our daily lives. The story is told entirely through the eyes
of a woman who devotes her life to music, and the choices she has and choices
pushed upon her by changing circumstances of the world. I’m unsure how well the ending encapsulates Macleod’s
overarching idea, but given how the weight of the novel is delivered from page
one, it’s a minor complaint. It may get
lost in the current milieu of titles, but if you see a copy, take notice.
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