The Cellist of Sarajevo - a million pieces...

The Cellist of Sarajevo

I read The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway last week. While I have previously written dismissively of modern literature, books like this prove how wrong I was. The setting is, as the title suggests, Sarajevo during the siege in the nineties. While Sarajevo may not be the setting you'd first think of for a beautifully written book the events that inspired it are suitably grand.

The book is inspired by a real event that happened in 1992. When shelling killed 22 people queuing to buy bread outside his apartment a Cellist dusted off his tuxedo, picked up his Cello and a stool and every day for the next 22 days he sat in the shell crater and played Albinoni's Adagio, with no thought for his own life. The book is fiction, based around the lives of three Sarajevans and how they're effected, directly or indirectly, by the Cellist.

Two of the characters are everyday people trying to live in the city, the third is a sniper assigned to protect the cellist. The theme of the book for me was the desperate struggle to retain or restore some humanity in an unimaginable situation. In their own ways each character wants to resurrect something of the city before the siege started, to demonstrate in some way that the spirit of the city as a whole is not breakable.

My favourite of the characters was Arrow, although for reasons of not wishing to spoil the plot for any potential readers I'll not specify why. I read some criticisms of the characters being clichéd but I don't think this is the case, yes some of the emotions they display are obvious, but then what do the critics expect people under constant sniper fire to be feeling?

Anyway, I can see this being one of the books from this generation that stands the test of time. As with any book on this kind of theme there were a couple of rather gross bits, but he didn't dwell on describing them and usually moved on after a sentence or two.

23.5.08 12:40

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To date 8 Comment(s) TrackBack-URL

Boso / Website (23.5.08 12:52)
Sounds good Pete, might pick it up.

Huwie / Website (23.5.08 14:00)
Hey I must check this out. Sounds great.

I wonder if this guy got his idea from Rostropovich? He used to be out with his cello in all kinds of situations, including the famous recital while they pulled the Berlin wall down around him. Amazing!

Fiona / Website (23.5.08 19:31)
Pete,
That book does sound interesting.

I have some questions for you. When you come here to 20six, it seems like a ghost town because from the front page, you are directed to the community blog whose very first post was made 2 years ago! The most read section has someone who no longer blogs here. This is sad Pete. Are there not current and lively 20six bloggers here? After I log in, I no longer see the the just blogged list. Am I missing something? And I have studied it, and I am repeatedly logged out from the site just for changing pages. I have heard others mention the same.

Do you have a list of active users I could visit? I would like to feel more connected here.

Thank you Pete!

amillionpieces / Website (26.5.08 15:18)
Boso, cool

Huwie, I don't think it was Rostropovich, although the story sounded pretty similar - they gave gis name and I forgot, whoops!

Fiona, will catch you on your blog.

Mikeachim / Website (28.5.08 15:28)
Sounds like one for me, that one. Thanks for the heads-up.

Interesting how the theme of music amidst war is so poignant, eg. The Piano. (That painful, frustrating contrast between what we can be and what we all too often are).

amillionpieces / Website (30.5.08 16:11)
Mike - yes, it's a very good theme, I also read something in the news about an orchestra in Poland I think it was during WW2. I guess it's one of the ways the human spirit can triumph.

Spencer / Website (4.6.08 00:07)
I'll give that a browse
There is a rather knockout true story
By Bill Carter on the same subject
"Fools Rush In"
One of my favourites

amillionpieces / Website (4.6.08 11:15)
Thanks, Spencer, I've just looked that one up on Amazon, it sounds really good.