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Aside from his trusty piano, Alfred Busi lives alone in his villa overlooking the waves. Famed in his town for his music and songs, he is mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days, occasionally performing the classics in small venues--never in the stadiums he could fill when in his prime. On the night before receiving his town's highest honor, Busi is wrested from bed by noises in his courtyard and then stunned by an attacking intruder--his hands and neck are scratched, his face is bitten. Busi can't say what it was that he encountered, exactly, but he feels his assailant was neither man nor animal. The attack sets off a chain of events that will cast a shadow on Busi's career, imperil his home, and alter the fabric of his town. Busi's own account of what happened is embellished to fan the flames of old rumor--of an ancient race of people living in the surrounding forest--and to spark new controversy: something must finally be done about the town's poor, the feral vagabonds at its edges, whose numbers have been growing. All the while Busi, weathering a media storm, must come to terms with his wife's death and decide whether to sing one last time.… (mais)
This compelling short novel has Alfred Busi as the main character. He is known as Mister Al in the un-named town in an un-named Mediterranean country and is a singer and pianist. At the start of the novel he is in his 60s and is mourning the death of his much loved wife. He lives in a large villa on the edge of town with dense woodland behind and the shingle seashore and sea in front. It sounds an idyllic spot but readers are shown a wild side as the animals come to raid his dustbins in the night. Venturing down he is attacked and bitten by what he says is a naked boy, not an animal. The next day is an important one for Busi, he is receiving an honour from the town and in his interview he explains his bandages and mentions the boy. The story flies around the town and events move on. The writing is as beautiful as you would expect from Jim Crace. The themes of the natural world and development emerge slowly, as well as old age and grief and the novel has a mythical atmosphere to it. The author cleverly weaves stories of poverty and homelessness and a civic society that tries to hide all this under the carpet and examples of over-indulgence, political manoevering and developers using tactics to whitewash their destruction of the natural world. The novel's final chapters are told by Busi's neighbour, tenant and biographer, six years on from the events at the beginning. This ties things together nicely. ( )
This is a story of Alfred Busi, aka Mister Al...a widowed, aging singer who is attacked one night by a feral creature....possibly human. This book looks at Alfred's life as he struggles with his grief over losing his wife, his troublesome relatives who want to redevelop the beloved old house he loves, and as he tries to make sense of what happened in his attack. It is well written and I enjoyed it...except that the last section was written from a different perspective that was a bit jarring and the identity of the final narrator is a bit confusing.
The book raises issues around urban development, poverty and homelessness, as well as the themes of dealing with grief and with change. All in all, I'm glad I read it. ( )
The Melody by Jim Crace is about Alfred Busi, an old man, a widower still living in the villa he shared with his wife. This books leaves me confused as several threads carry along with no conclusion that I can surmise, and the narrator switches close to the end of the book. I am still looking for the connections and the main idea. The only thing I am sure of is that I clearly missed something in this book.
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
...but we are by now weary of the piety of galleries and the gaudiness of churches. Instead, we stroll along the Avenue of Fame,where, among the busts and bronzes of little distinction, we find the life-sized statue of a naked boy, placed thee through the benefaction of a will in 1939. Our guide assures us that the boy steps down from his pedestal at night and causes trouble i the town. He has witnessed it himself, he says: the trouble and the pedestal, though not the child. -- Alain Tancred, One Hundred Towns of Character and Charm (revised edition, 1952), translated by the author.
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Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
It was not unusual for Alfred Busi -- Mister Al -- to wake up in the shallows of the night and overhear a cacophony of animals, hunting for food in his and his neighbors' metal rubbish bins or drinking water from the open drain, water that the residents had used to clean their teeth or wash their clothes and dishes.
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Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
We go back to the car, where it is safe, and -- wondering, just wondering, what we will witness at the forest edge -- we wait there in its headlamp beams for creatures to appear and dine.
Aside from his trusty piano, Alfred Busi lives alone in his villa overlooking the waves. Famed in his town for his music and songs, he is mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days, occasionally performing the classics in small venues--never in the stadiums he could fill when in his prime. On the night before receiving his town's highest honor, Busi is wrested from bed by noises in his courtyard and then stunned by an attacking intruder--his hands and neck are scratched, his face is bitten. Busi can't say what it was that he encountered, exactly, but he feels his assailant was neither man nor animal. The attack sets off a chain of events that will cast a shadow on Busi's career, imperil his home, and alter the fabric of his town. Busi's own account of what happened is embellished to fan the flames of old rumor--of an ancient race of people living in the surrounding forest--and to spark new controversy: something must finally be done about the town's poor, the feral vagabonds at its edges, whose numbers have been growing. All the while Busi, weathering a media storm, must come to terms with his wife's death and decide whether to sing one last time.
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The writing is as beautiful as you would expect from Jim Crace. The themes of the natural world and development emerge slowly, as well as old age and grief and the novel has a mythical atmosphere to it. The author cleverly weaves stories of poverty and homelessness and a civic society that tries to hide all this under the carpet and examples of over-indulgence, political manoevering and developers using tactics to whitewash their destruction of the natural world. The novel's final chapters are told by Busi's neighbour, tenant and biographer, six years on from the events at the beginning. This ties things together nicely. (