Conversations with Beethoven

by Sanford Friedman, Richard Howard (Introduction)

Inspired by the famous composer’s notebooks, this biographical novel offers “a perfect portrait of an irascible genius” and “revelatory fossils of the last year of Beethoven’s anguished life” (Edmund White)

Deaf as he was, Beethoven had to be addressed in writing, and he was always accompanied by a notebook in which people could scribble questions and comments. In a tour de force fiction invention, Conversations with Beethoven tells the story of the last year of Beethoven’s life almost entirely through such notebook entries. Friends, family, students, doctors, and others attend to the volatile Maestro, whose sometimes unpredictable and often very loud replies we infer. A fully fleshed and often very funny portrait of Beethoven emerges. He struggles with his music and with his health; he argues with and insults just about everyone. Most of all, he worries about his wayward—and beloved—nephew Karl.
 
A large cast of Dickensian characters surrounds the great composer at the center of this wonderfully engaging novel, which deepens in the end to make a memorable music of its own.

Genres: Fiction, Music, Historical Fiction, Literature, Literary Fiction, American, 21st Century

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Sanford Friedman was an American novelist. After graduating from the Horace Mann School and the Carnegie Institute of Technology, he was stationed as a military police officer in Korea, earning a Bronze Star. He began his career as a playwright and theater producer, and was later a writing instructor at Juilliard and SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders). “Ocean,” a chapter from Totempole, was serialized in Partisan Review in 1964 and won second prize in the 1965 O. Henry Awards. Totempole (1965) was followed by the novels A Haunted Woman (1968), Still Life (1975), and Rip Van Winkle (1980). At the time of his death, Friedman left behind an unpublished manuscript for the novel Conversations with Beethoven.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPEAKERS: FORM OF ADDRESS

Sara, daughter: Dad
Karen, Goodreads friend: Señor
Melissa, niece: Uncle Ton
Ken, friend: Tony
Beemer, former boss: T

----- ----- ----- ----- -----
----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Need any help with this one, Dad.

No, no, I know you'll know what to say; I meant like downloading some picture from the internet.

Well, okay, but remember to hit 'Save' often because you're kinda new to the laptop.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Ees been a long time, Señor.

Yes, but it's been a week since you started and the book doesn't look that dense.

Oh, so you're trying to write your review in the style of the book?

Well, I'm not saying you can't do it, it's just ....

Fionnuala? Señor, I've met Fionnuala. I've read all Fionnuala's reviews. Fionnuala is a friend of mine. Señor, you are no .....

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Another NYRB-Classic, Uncle Ton?

The text looks weird.

So, it's just like one-half of a conversation, we only see what the person talking to Beethoven says and never Beethoven's replies?

Do you get a full picture of Beethoven that way?

And how does he come across?

Malevolent. Hmm.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Is it a Top-Ten book, Tony?

I guess it will depend on how well you like the new David Mitchell.

I didn't know Schubert actually met Beethoven. How did they get on?

Well, nobody likes Rossini.

I don't know much about early 19th Century medical practice so I have no idea what kind of 'tapping' procedure could drain three gallons of water from a man's body.

Yes, that would annoy me too.

No, I haven't read Doctor Faustus yet so I don't know what the name Nepomuk means. Seems a protracted connection though: the middle name of a man Beethoven dedicates a late quartet to and the name of a child character Thomas Mann uses one-hundred years later.

Yes, I know this will bother you.

No, I don't know anyone in Germany.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Now what, Señor?

St. John of Nepomuk was a Bohemian martyr. Catholics love themselves a saint's name. It is not all that unusual in Austria, Southern Germany, Czech, all those places what used to be Bohemia.

Seems a protracted connection though.

Yes, I know it will bother you.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

How's the golf game, T?

No, no messages. Either you tidied everything up nicely or you were entirely useless at the end.

We do miss your case closing memos though.

Much funnier than your reviews.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This enjoyable epistolary novel is set in 1826-7, the last year of Beethoven’s life. The composer, in his mid-50s by this time, was as cantankerous as ever. He communicated aloud, but had visitors write in notebooks. The novel, then, is a compilation of jotted entries plus the letters Beethoven sent and received. (Unfortunately, the introduction to this posthumous novel was not included in my e-book download, so I am unsure to what extent Friedman drew on the historical record. I presume he wrote all the messages himself.)

The novel opens with concerns over Beethoven’s nephew and ward, Karl. The luckless chap shot himself in the head, in a suicide attempt possibly inspired by Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther – but survived. Now he has to wait for the hair to grow back over the scar before he can take up his post in the army. Beethoven himself had constant medical problems, including colic and dropsy. He underwent multiple surgeries to drain water from his stomach and was prescribed one glass of frozen punch per day (?!) as a remedy. One thing is certain: he was no easy patient. He had several doctors, one of whom swore, “Of all the patients I have treated in my lifetime you are the most unruly, to say nothing of the most offensive.”

The experience is somewhat like reading Mark Dunn’s novel in footnotes, Ibid – you fill in the context for yourself; most of Beethoven’s annoyed responses are inferred. (Yet you also get the occasional hilarious comment à propos of nothing, such as “How kind of you, but the member I have is quite sufficient.”) Because it is almost exclusively dialogue, it’s also a lot like a play, with a cast of characters including family members, fellow composers, patrons and doctors making entrances and exits. There is an amusing diversity of voices, rendered convincingly through different levels of diction and spelling (e.g. “Filharmonic”; sentences also trail off or are interrupted). In addition to Karl, my two favorite voices were Beethoven’s greedy brother and the servant boy Michael.

The only place the novel’s formula doesn’t work is on pages 153–5, where Karl gives a long account of a journey they took while Beethoven was unwell. Here I thought Friedman was stepping too far outside of the boundaries he set for himself. I also found it was easy to lose the thread of who is speaking or writing. I imagine it would be helpful to read this in conjunction with a biography, such as the recent one by Jan Swafford (Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph).

My favorite passage was a rare one from Beethoven himself, where we get his own reflection on his deafness:

What do you know of dungeons?! … you style my deafness a dungeon. Well, in that regard you are partly right. Yet to speak of the silence and the solitude en passant as if—Solitary confinement!!! That is a punishment whose harshness you cannot possibly imagine. … No matter where I go or what I do, those walls are always with me; they cut me off from everyone, imprison me inside myself.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published after his death, this was the last novel by American novelist and playwright Sanford Friedman (1928 – 2010) and is an unusual and moving read. Set during the last year of Beethoven’s life, this is not a work which deals with an untouchable genius, but with a real man, with all the niggling problems, human emotions, flaws and colourful cast of characters that surround the composer as he nears the end of his life. Due to his deafness, Beethoven spoke aloud (and often loudly!) but required others to write their responses and questions. This leads to your reading, in essence, half a conversation throughout the book – a rapid, often half scribbled, very often emotive – conversation, where Beethoven’s responses are implied and understood. The unusual sense of reading this is almost like sitting on a train and being unable to cut out half heard conversations, but it works wonderfully well.

Much of the book concerns Beethoven’s concerns about his ward, and nephew, Karl, who attempts suicide at the beginning of the story in July, 1826. Despite the flow of accusations, threats, brow beating and insults between them, you do feel that Beethoven is very worried about Karl and takes his responsibility seriously. At one point, staying with his money grabbing brother, he even tries to convince him to cut his wife out of his will and leave his house to Karl – a suggestion which does not go down well... Although much of Beethoven’s character seems unattractive; most especially his extreme suspicion and, seemingly intense dislike, for every woman within the pages of this book, you also often feel sorry for him. Surrounded by greedy and selfish relatives, beleaguered by problems, struggling to work and create music, he often shows a very vulnerable side – for example, his fondness for a young servant, Michael, at his brother’s estate and mention of the beatings he suffered as a young boy, reveal his own sadness and longing for kindness.

This book takes us from 1826 to 1827; through family feud’s, illness, financial worries and introduce us to Beethoven’s relations, friends, hangers-on and servants. Some are caring, others less so, but the novel is so immediate it is almost like viewing these people’s lives and eavesdropping on their conversations. This is a fascinating personal read and would make an ideal choice for book clubs, with so much to discuss. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Novel Of Beethoven's Last Year

Americans have shown a great fascination with the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 -- 1827) as reflected, among other ways, in many biographies, cultural studies, poems, and novels. Among recent works on Beethoven is "Conversations with Beethoven" by the American novelist and playwright Sanford Friedman (1928 -- 2010). This work remained unpublished at the time of Friedman's death and was published at last in 2014 as part of the New York Review of Books ongoing "Classics" series which preserves undeservedly neglected titles of literary merit.

Friedman's book is set in the last year of Beethoven's life. By that time, the great composer had long been totally deaf and had to depend on writing to communicate with others. Beethoven kept a series of notebooks in which his interlocutors could write their end of a conversation. Beethoven generally would respond orally but would occasionally write a response in the conversation in a separate notebook. Most of Beethoven's notebooks were preserved and form a source for biographers.

Friedman's book is unusual in that it is presented in the form in which people communicated with Beethoven: the words of his various interlocutors are given (The interlocutors are identified by their form of address to Beethoven as shown in a table at the front of the book.) but Beethoven's response usually is omitted, to be supplied by the context and by the reader's imagination. On occasion, Friedman gives Beethoven's response; and to provide further context Friedman gives several letters written by the composer to individuals who are not present. The materials in Friedman's conversations are not on the whole drawn from Beethoven's notebooks but are fictitious and drawn from the novelist's imagination. Still the book is well-informed, and it draws the reader into its portrait of Beethoven.

Much of the story centers upon Beethoven's relationship with his ward and nephew, Karl, who is 20 when the novel begins. Beethoven had attained custody of Karl years earlier, wresting the child from his mother, Johanna, after Joanna's husband, Beethoven's brother had died. While well-meaning, Beethoven smothered the boy, and the relationship with Joanna was fraught with hatred, tension, and sexual ambiguity. Friedman's novel begins as the young man makes a failed attempt at suicide by shooting himself in the head. As the story goes forward, well-placed friends wrangle a place in the army and a potential commission for Karl. Beethoven does not want to see his nephew in military service.

With the grandeur and spirituality of his music, Beethoven was a difficult, troubled man. Friedman shows Beethoven working on some of his late masterworks, including the Ninth Symphony and the final string quartets, but the focus of the book is on non-musical events and on Beethoven's character. He is portrayed in largely unflattering terms as irascible, curmudgeonly, vulgar, alcoholic, paranoid, miserly, and misogynistic. Much of the book takes place at his younger brother's farm a couple of days removed from Vienna. The book shows Beethoven's difficult interactions with his brother and with his brother's wife, whom he loathes.

Beethoven overstays his welcome with his brother and becomes seriously ill upon returning to Vienna. The final section of the book shows the dying Beethoven in the ineffectual care of five doctors while he continues to struggle with Karl. Among many scenes, the book shows a short meeting between Beethoven and Franz Schubert who adored the older composer. Beethoven praises the shy young man's songs not knowing that Schubert himself would survive Beethoven only by months. This meeting is well-imagined and presented even though there is no historical basis for concluding it took place.

The book gradually develops from showing Beethoven's character to a meditation of mortality as the composer becomes aware of and resigned to his impending death. It works to a sense of forgiveness of others and of self-understanding that sometimes is overlooked in the legends that have grown around the stormy composer's final days. The book becomes convincing and moving in its portrayal of Beethoven and flawed humanity as seen largely through the words of others.

During his lifetime, many of Sanford Friedman's works were on the theme of being Jewish and gay. In this, his final book, Friedman displayed a deep interest and sympathy for Beethoven while demonstrating a close, sustained study of the composer's life. I have had a lifelong interest in Beethoven and was moved by reading Friedman's book. With all the literature surrounding Beethoven, the author's insights and novel helped bring him to life. This novel is a worthy addition to the many sources giving Beethoven a high, honored place in American culture.

Robin Friedman

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy of this book from The New York Review of Books through NetGalley.

The format and style of this book is nothing short of genius. Because of his deafness, Beethoven would use conversation books to communicate in the last years of his life. His friends and family would write their parts of a conversation in the books and he would respond orally. CONVERSATIONS WITH BEETHOVEN attempts to reconstruct the conversation book from the last year of his life.
These conversations with the great maestro portray a man who was irascible and paranoid. He believed that all women had loose morals that would give you a disease. He constantly accused people in his life of trying to poison him or steal from him. He had an explosive temper and those around him would often try to calm him down and make him stop shouting. Beethoven’s paranoia resulted in several hilarious exchanges between himself and his family members. There are many funny conversations between Beethoven and his brother Johann in which Beethoven is accusing Johann of stealing from him or telling Johann that his wife is sleeping around.

The conversations also reveal a touching side to the composer, who was thoroughly devoted to his family and always passionate about writing music. His nephew Karl, whom he adopted after the death of his brother, gives him many reasons for worry and heartache. Throughout all of the trials and tribulations with Karl, his affection and attention to his nephew never wanes. He also has several devoted assistants and friends that he cares for greatly. The unique style of the conversations lets the reader see, in their own words, the genuine affection that friends, family and acquaintances had for Beethoven.

If you read one new book this fall then it should be CONVERSATIONS WITH BEETHOVEN. The New York Review of Books had issued yet another great reprint that will allow a new generation of readers to enjoy and appreciate Sanford Friedman’s work.

[Steven Eldredge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely wonderful book, ingeniously conceived and flawlessly carried out. Beethoven, who was of course profoundly deaf in his final years, and in ill health, carried on conversations by means of 'conversation books'; notebooks where friends, family, visitors would scribble their part of the conversation in pencil and the composer would answer vocally. This novel, which covers 1826-27, the final year of his life, is written entirely from the point of those scribblers, and we are to left to deduce what Beethoven's answers, questions or demands are. Alternately maddening, funny, and profoundly sad and touching (the scene where Schubert comes to visit is unbearably poignant) this book is a great gift to all who love the music and life of Ludwig van Beethoven. I would give it six stars if I could.

[Alesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book because I wanted to learn more about Beethoven. It is written in a unique style -- the fictional comments that people wrote in a notebook to the Maestro when he was deaf. The author does a great job with this technique. However, I didn't want to "hang out" with the characters long enough to finish the book -- their squabbles, ego-driven arguments and anger.

[Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freidman cleverly relates the final months of Beethoven's life almost exclusively through half-rendered conversations. What might seem like a trick, succeeds terrifically as a novel. It's smart, insightful and often very funny...

[Wendelle]

A uniquely written piece of fiction that traces the outlines of Beethoven's tempestuous, forceful, obsessive personality through the format of a play, where all the conversations are one-sided. The reader seldom sees Beethoven's reactions or his share of the conversations, but can imagine their exaggerated, emotional form and temperamental tantrums from the responses of his interlocutors. His nephew writhes against the smothering effect of Beethoven's constant surveillance and strictures and commands. His many admirers seek to appease and soothe his moods, and mediate between his frank, unrestrained reactions and the versions that ultimately reach his patrons and benefactors. His brother keeps on quarreling with him. His sister-in-law, whom he publicly and regularly denounces, and rebukes for depraved licentiousness, won't see him. This book is a quite funny and absorbing theater of the last few eventful days of Beethoven's life, when he has reached legendary status and was preoccupied with his dissipative nephew's suicide attempt and desire for a military career (which Beethoven met with stormy disapproval) and his own medical convalescence. This book is a quite comical and captivating portrait of Beethoven.

[Gurldoggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating portrait in voices of a great artist and infuriating man in his final years. Beethoven is deaf throughout the book, but far from silent. Like a piece of music in which many lines of harmony provide counterpoint to a grand theme, dozens of friends, family members, lawyers and doctors speak, but the composer’s outsized voice and personality are the loudest of all.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might be the best book I've read on Father/Son relationships

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another case for imaginative historical fiction, which succeeds in producing finer, more complex portraits than the biography, which lapses so frequently into tedium, hedgy speculation, and ego

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really original, executed very well!

[Dylan Cuellar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious and sorrowful, the book takes the final months of Beethoven and attacks it purely through a one sided dialogue. When Beethoven is deaf, his companions communicate with him via written notes with him answering in voice. We read the notes. We must hear Beethoven's voice in response. This creates an intense intimacy between us and the titular character, and while this could've easily came off as a literary gimmick, Friedman is so colorful and exciting in his writing that after a page or two it feels completely reasonable as a structure. Starting with the attempted suicide of his nephew and ward Karl, who blames his drive for death on his Uncle, we begin to see Beethoven try to fight and reconcile his relationships with his family, friends, art, and himself. What begins as a moment of unforgivable broken relationship(s), we slowly find forgiveness and a beautiful story towards fulfillment. A darkly comic tragedy ends in a regretful but beautiful ode to joy.

[Rose Panieri · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very important point for Beethoven researchers, “Conversations with Beethoven” is a novel, not biographical.

When I purchased “Conversations with Beethoven,” I was under the impression it was similar in scope to the “Beethoven Conversation Books” by Theodore Albrecht – a biographical account that painstakingly transcribes and translates the content of Beethoven’s conversation books.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Though it is not clear from the book’s cover and most reviews, “Conversations with Beethoven” is a NOVEL, not even on the same level as historical fiction. At least historical fiction is based loosely on facts. This novel takes far too many liberties in twisting the facts of Beethoven’s life.

The book opens with a suicide letter written by Ludwig’s nephew, Karl van Beethoven. I was amazed, as I had never realized such a letter existed. Likewise, I was unaware of a letter from Johanna Van Beethoven (Karl’s mother) to Karl Van Beethoven describing Ludwig on his death bed and the funeral, complete with a smattering of gossip.

As it turns out, both letters are, in fact, fictional, as are most, if not all, comments from the conversation books. Yes, Beethoven was infamous for bestowing nicknames. But, the idea that he consistently referred to his sister-in-law as “Fat Stuff” – especially within earshot – is ridiculous. There is also no evidence that Beethoven actually conversed with Franz Schubert, much less that he waxed poetic about Schubert’s music.

And for a man who said, “Composers don’t cry. Composers are made of fire,” Beethoven does a lot of weeping and blubbering in the novel. If you're going to portray the man - even fictionally - at least make an effort to understand his character.

The fact that the author haphazardly tossed in a few letters actually written by Beethoven added to the confusion.

Had I looked carefully at the back cover of the book I would have realized it was a novel – fiction – and passed it by.

Having read several Beethoven biographies, there were quite a number of excerpts in “Conversations with Beethoven” that didn’t ring true. This is especially the case in which Beethoven begs Johanna Van Beethoven for forgiveness. Johanna refers to Beethoven as a woman-hating misogynist and accuses him of seeing women as either a Madonna or a whore. There are no such quotes from Johanna. Nor was she present when Beethoven’s letters to the Immortal Beloved were found.

Other conversations do ring true – especially those between Beethoven and his brother Johann as well as some of the discourse between Beethoven and his physicians.

As a novel, the book is entertaining. Certain parts of the book ring true. Others do not. The character development is wooden. Beethoven’s personality is mostly implied. Nothing of the true genius of the man shines through in this novel. For the most part, you get the impression that Beethoven was a loud, self-pitying, pompous, obsessed and paranoid jerk. His biographies paint a more complete picture of a very complex individual.

[Aseem Kaul · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a great silence at the heart of the Sanford Friedman's brilliant Conversations with Beethoven, or rather, there is a silenced greatness. The conceit of the novel is that it consists entirely of a record of selected conversations those close to him have with Beethoven in what turns out to be his last year; conversations where whatever is 'said' to the deaf composer is written down, whereas his (presumably spoken) responses are not recorded, and must be inferred from the transcripts. This makes the novel an incredible tour de force, not only because of the skill required to carry off such a design--enabling the reader to literally read between the lines--but because the effort required to imagine Beethoven's side of the dialog (and the slight nagging frustration of never knowing exactly what was said) is a haunting reminder of the silence that plagues the man himself.

But the conceit is also, in a way, a convenience, in that it releases Friedman from the terrible burden of putting ordinary words in the mouth of genius. Friedman's Beethoven is petty, melodramatic, vainglorious, pig-headed and frequently delusional, but he is also the great Master we know and revere, and the fact that he exists in the book largely as a void, makes this contradiction easier to manage. A speaking Beethoven would be subject to the same scrutiny as the other characters in Friedman's novel, a silent Beethoven transcends our judgment, because how can we judge what is, after all, a projection of our own imagination. Unheard melodies are sweeter, and if you love Beethoven the way I do, then you may find yourself filling the silence that plays the role of Beethoven in this book with music (the allegretto from the Seventh Symphony in my case), until by the time you get to the novel's exquisite closing scenes, the man himself has been entirely transformed into his music. That Conversations with Beethoven allows and enables such an alchemy, while remaining a consummate and darkly funny novel in its own right, is its true gift.

[Daniel Polansky]

Yeah...not bad. The conceit itself is clever enough – the collected jottings of the relatives, friends and acquaintances of Beethoven in the year before his death, after his hearing had depreciated to the point where all communication needed to be written down and passed to him. As Beethoven mostly spoke his responses, our picture of the maestro is drawn largely in negative space, that is to say, from the way the other characters interact with him. What develops is a portrait of an irascible, tormented genius, in whom kindness, wit and self-sacrifice are intermingled with hypocrisy, misogyny, and bitterness. The nuanced depiction of the characters, each offering a contrary perspective on each other and on the maestro himself, works excellently, but the individual personalities do not sparkle particularly. I couldn't help but compare it to other polyphonic novels I've read, in which I felt the individual perspectives to be more captivating.

[Trisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I abandoned this book after about 20 pages or so. It just didn't seem worth the effort I was putting into trying to stick with it. I was expecting this to be an epistolary style novel based on Beethoven's letters but that's not what I found when I started reading. Instead the author has left the real life Beethoven out of the picture and chosen instead to concentrate on making up a series of letters and notes that might have been addressed to him. The reader is tasked with imagining what his response might have been.

The result reads more like a script for a play -- without the main character's part being included. Very frustrating! If anything, it's motivated me to do a little digging around for a biography of Beethoven.

[Jason Bergsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story telling the last year of Beethoven's life. This fictional work is inspired by the composer's real life notebooks, and how he communicated to those who meant the most to him. From medical procedures to interpersonal relationships and the question of the will, this book tells a complete story of the music legend's final days.

This was a very interesting read. I enjoyed the almost one-sided style where you get about half of every conversation and you get to fill in the gaps.

That's what I found most interesting about the story, because this book is certainly about the journey through the book rather than the actual plot. The characters are fairly interesting and it's cool to see the different dialogue styles. With a big cast of characters, it stays interesting despite not too much actually happening.

Overall I enjoyed the book a good bit. I think it was an interesting read and I've never read anything quite like it stylistically.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been an ardent fan of Beethoven. Even now, I finished reading this book while listening to his string quartets. This book covers the span of the last year of his life which is rife with disagreements, taunting, pain, misfortune, anger, disbelief…all the things that you might imagine would figure into the last days of Beethoven. Based on these writings, which feature the mostly one-sided conversations that Beethoven had with a variety of family, friends, and rivals, he was ever the sarcastic, vindictive, but ultimately mortal and repentant voice that we’ve come to know him as. It’s an interesting work in that we can merely imagine most of what Beethoven’s replies must have been based on the written conversation from his visitors. If you’re a fan of the Great Maestro, this may interest you. If you’re indifferent, this may hold no sway.

[Newwwsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book for its clever way of letting you imagine what Beethoven is saying without actually knowing. It made me think of how (during his last few years especially) Beethoven had so much trouble trying to understand what people are saying when they talk, and now the tables have turned and we have to try to figure out what he is saying. You really get perspective and put yourself in his shoes. The way Friedman wrote these conversations didn’t make it hard for you to understand the responses either, making it quite a relaxing read.

His relationship with Karl was bittersweet and it’s nice that there’s a book dedicated more towards that. I’m not aware of how factual the events were between them but from what I knew about them from before I have a good idea.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it for a nice light read.

[James Frase-White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely conceit of a book. The author has the blessed audacity to take the reader on a journey at the end of Beethoven's life as if you, the reader were like the great man. Deaf. It does take a bit of adjustment at first unto you "hear" the way Ludwig van Beethoven does: through internal memory/knowledge of sound, of individual voices. We communicate as he did, via notes and letters with family and friends. It is artfully written, illuminating the personalities surrounding the maestro, so that the reader has a unique, and compassionate, focus on his life, and death.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A glimpse into Beethoven’s life

A novelization of the conversation books that Beethoven used to communicate after he became deaf, the book compels your participation in order to fill in the blanks for the Maestro since he usually spoke his response.
Because of the fragmented nature of the writing I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone. If you enjoy a bit of mystery and detective work then you will enjoy reading this.

[Mark Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beethoven's conversation books are used as a vehicle to novelize the last few months of his life. His tumultuous relationships with his beloved nephew, his hated brother (and the brother's wife, known as "the fat one,") and just about everyone else. You have to read closely to know who is talking, as the novel mimics the actual conversation books. Ultimately moving and sad, this book is a good quick read and a tribute to a troubled genius.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and fun and, for what it's worth, the picture of Beethoven in his last year created here seems to me to be largely accurate in outline and seems to capture his moods and emotions at that time. Not sure what anyone who hasn't read a Beethoven biography would make of it.

[Justin Echols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this novel was an absolute pleasure.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever and insightful imagination of Beethoven's final year. My but the Maestro was an ornery one!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real tour de force of experimental writing where the main character is silent throughout almost the entire novel.

[milo · Rating 3 out of 5]

i too would go as far away from beethoven as i possibly could while constantly begging him for pocket money

[Victor Wong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting that it is written as a one sided conversations but had I known it was purely fiction I may not have picked up the book.