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The Flute-Player
Set in totalitarian Leningrad - but is doesn't matter, it could be any anti-art state, this is a rich and fast moving story of Elena, the flute player, who keeps alive the persecuted creative spirit of a generation of artists. She is the one constant in their lives, the inspiration, sexually and emotionally generous, at once a muse and a whore.
According to Thomas, "This novel emerged out of fascination with Russian poets and particularly Anna Akhmatova. I wanted a generic figure, a woman who preserved the truth of the word, while chaos reigned all around her. I didn't want to individualise the characters too much, so there is very little dialogue in this novel."
According to Thomas, "This novel emerged out of fascination with Russian poets and particularly Anna Akhmatova. I wanted a generic figure, a woman who preserved the truth of the word, while chaos reigned all around her. I didn't want to individualise the characters too much, so there is very little dialogue in this novel."
- GenresFictionRussiaLiterature
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
5 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
D.M. Thomas
85 books84 followersD.M. Thomas was born in Cornwall in 1935. After reading English at New College, Oxford, he became a teacher and was Head of the English Department at Hereford College of Education until he became a full-time writer. His first novel The Flute-Player won the Gollancz Pan/Picador Fantasy Competition. He is also known for his collections of verse and his translation from the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.
He was awarded the Los Angeles Fiction prize for his novel The White Hotel, an international bestseller, translated into 30 languages; a Cholmondeley award for poetry; and the Orwell Prize for his biography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He lives in his native Cornwall, England.
He was awarded the Los Angeles Fiction prize for his novel The White Hotel, an international bestseller, translated into 30 languages; a Cholmondeley award for poetry; and the Orwell Prize for his biography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He lives in his native Cornwall, England.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 18, 2019
The Flute-Player is based, vaguely, on the life style in the Soviet Russia in the first years after the revolution. The novel is a story of a woman…
The book reads as a murky dystopia of terror, sex and arts… The narration is somewhat skeletal and darkly idealistic so if it were a painting it would’ve belonged to the naïve art…
The heroine, Elena is a hybrid of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Sonya and Marquis de Sade’s Justine so she cares for all the humiliated and insulted and especially for poets and artists…
Revolutions destroy societies, the existing order of things and human fates… But even the most horrendous revolutions are unable to destroy the creative nature of artiste.
The way to the prison lay through the medieval part of the city, by the river. The river was frozen, but no children skated on it. Scenes of horror from the late war were everywhere. Limbs, long unburied, stuck out of deep snow. Long-dead hands implored mercy. Decapitated heads, stuck on pikes, adorned one of the bridges. Passers-by shouted obscenities at her. Elena kept her face hunched in her turned-up collar, and hurried on. She almost fainted with the cold, realized how weak she was still. The sky was leaden, tinged with purple; more snow to come. By three in the afternoon it was dusk.
The book reads as a murky dystopia of terror, sex and arts… The narration is somewhat skeletal and darkly idealistic so if it were a painting it would’ve belonged to the naïve art…
The heroine, Elena is a hybrid of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Sonya and Marquis de Sade’s Justine so she cares for all the humiliated and insulted and especially for poets and artists…
She had gone back on the streets. There was no money left, no jobs to be had, even in service; she had tried everywhere. At least, she would still be mistress of her soul. Marion was horrified at the idea, and guilty at being in the position of having to live off her friend’s degradation; but in the end there seemed to be no alternative. In a city where nearly everyone whored in the spirit, selling each other, it was almost a virtue merely to sell your own body. So Elena dolled herself up, as much as her poverty allowed, plastering her face with cheap lipstick, powder and mascara, took her courage in both hands, and sallied forth. She found the streets much changed: the shop fronts dingier, the passers-by more derelict, drunken and uncouth, the whores dirtier, shabbier, more sullen and desperate.
Revolutions destroy societies, the existing order of things and human fates… But even the most horrendous revolutions are unable to destroy the creative nature of artiste.
November 30, 2017
"She Could Not Place It"
This novel was a rewarding, if sometimes puzzling, experience.
The blurb speculates that it might be set in Leningrad, which is mostly true. Some of the early parts are set in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg (a different name for the same city), while others (post-1914) are set in Petrograd, before the post-1924 change of name to Leningrad. More importantly, some of the chapters towards the end of the book involving the Soviet poet Marion (possibly inspired by the real poet Marina Tsvetaeva, one of four Russian artists to whom the novel is dedicated) seem to be set in post World War II Berlin (for there is talk of the Wall):
"There was a tune going round in her head and she was annoyed because she could not place it."
None of the city names are mentioned in the novel itself. We have to infer these locations from oblique geographical or architectural references in the text. Indeed, there is much in the novel that is oblique or lacking in precision. It’s not important that the reader know exactly where we are. We could be in either the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. What these places have in common is the fact that they were, at the time of the fictional events, totalitarian states.
The Evil of Banality
This is a work of the imagination that endeavours to capture the banal, if not exactly pedestrian, experience of everyday life in a totalitarian state (whether or not it was at war, which it usually was). It bears resemblances to William T Vollmann’s "Europe Central" (though less concerned about the machinations of the actual war), Mikhail Bulgakov’s "The Master and Margarita" (though more downbeat in mood), Anna Kavan’s "Ice", and Christopher Isherwood’s "The Berlin Stories" (upon which the film "Cabaret" was based).
I say "banal", because there is little concern with action of any description, more the feelings that each of the characters has in and for their immediate surroundings. There is only the barest of plots, without which the novel lacks dynamism, even if it could be argued that the work as a whole is some kind of post-modernist experiment (which I question, because the tone is almost universally that of realism). For all the sexual activity, the novel still leaves much to be desired (by the reader, at least):
"The hugs, the kisses, the exclamations of wonder, can be imagined."
Art and Artists under Totalitarianism
Once again, the blurb suggests that "totalitarianism attempts to destroy art". Whether or not the attempt is deliberate, this is the effect of totalitarianism. Even those artists who are embraced by the state suffer at its hands. Its love is a demanding and tough love that compromises the integrity of the artist. On the other hand, it persecutes those who are not in favour. They’re censored, jailed or sent to labor camps for re-education, or concentration camps for extermination.
Artists carry their own art as well as traces of civilisation and culture as a whole. In a way, they protect and preserve it against repression by the state and suppression by society.
The main character is Elena, who isn't overtly artistic, although she takes on small roles in theatre, musicals, cabarets, bars and brothels to make ends meet and survive against wartime deprivations. She's also forced to work as a prostitute on the street, an opportunity which she accepts with equanimity.
Elena supports, subsidises and sustains various artists, including the poet Michael (who is Marion’s brother) and the painter Peter. Not only is she Michael’s muse, but she memorises his verse, so that it doesn’t have to be printed, and can’t be discovered and destroyed by the authorities.
Learnt by Heart
Everything she knows
About life and art,
She has learnt by heart.
The Flute-Player
It’s Elena who becomes the flute-player of the title. She only rediscovers this childhood skill in the last five pages of the novel, when she resumes playing, to improve her prospects of becoming a teacher and educating infants. For all her trials and tribulations, the reader is relieved that this selfless woman has survived to tell not just her own tale, but those of other victims of totalitarianism as well.
Poem Without a Hero [Excerpt]
By Anna Akhmatova
It’s banal to say.
I’ll leave it to others to explain...
For one moment of peace
I would give the peace of the tomb.
This novel was a rewarding, if sometimes puzzling, experience.
The blurb speculates that it might be set in Leningrad, which is mostly true. Some of the early parts are set in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg (a different name for the same city), while others (post-1914) are set in Petrograd, before the post-1924 change of name to Leningrad. More importantly, some of the chapters towards the end of the book involving the Soviet poet Marion (possibly inspired by the real poet Marina Tsvetaeva, one of four Russian artists to whom the novel is dedicated) seem to be set in post World War II Berlin (for there is talk of the Wall):
"There was a tune going round in her head and she was annoyed because she could not place it."
None of the city names are mentioned in the novel itself. We have to infer these locations from oblique geographical or architectural references in the text. Indeed, there is much in the novel that is oblique or lacking in precision. It’s not important that the reader know exactly where we are. We could be in either the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. What these places have in common is the fact that they were, at the time of the fictional events, totalitarian states.
The Evil of Banality
This is a work of the imagination that endeavours to capture the banal, if not exactly pedestrian, experience of everyday life in a totalitarian state (whether or not it was at war, which it usually was). It bears resemblances to William T Vollmann’s "Europe Central" (though less concerned about the machinations of the actual war), Mikhail Bulgakov’s "The Master and Margarita" (though more downbeat in mood), Anna Kavan’s "Ice", and Christopher Isherwood’s "The Berlin Stories" (upon which the film "Cabaret" was based).
I say "banal", because there is little concern with action of any description, more the feelings that each of the characters has in and for their immediate surroundings. There is only the barest of plots, without which the novel lacks dynamism, even if it could be argued that the work as a whole is some kind of post-modernist experiment (which I question, because the tone is almost universally that of realism). For all the sexual activity, the novel still leaves much to be desired (by the reader, at least):
"The hugs, the kisses, the exclamations of wonder, can be imagined."
Art and Artists under Totalitarianism
Once again, the blurb suggests that "totalitarianism attempts to destroy art". Whether or not the attempt is deliberate, this is the effect of totalitarianism. Even those artists who are embraced by the state suffer at its hands. Its love is a demanding and tough love that compromises the integrity of the artist. On the other hand, it persecutes those who are not in favour. They’re censored, jailed or sent to labor camps for re-education, or concentration camps for extermination.
Artists carry their own art as well as traces of civilisation and culture as a whole. In a way, they protect and preserve it against repression by the state and suppression by society.
The main character is Elena, who isn't overtly artistic, although she takes on small roles in theatre, musicals, cabarets, bars and brothels to make ends meet and survive against wartime deprivations. She's also forced to work as a prostitute on the street, an opportunity which she accepts with equanimity.
Elena supports, subsidises and sustains various artists, including the poet Michael (who is Marion’s brother) and the painter Peter. Not only is she Michael’s muse, but she memorises his verse, so that it doesn’t have to be printed, and can’t be discovered and destroyed by the authorities.
Learnt by Heart
Everything she knows
About life and art,
She has learnt by heart.
The Flute-Player
It’s Elena who becomes the flute-player of the title. She only rediscovers this childhood skill in the last five pages of the novel, when she resumes playing, to improve her prospects of becoming a teacher and educating infants. For all her trials and tribulations, the reader is relieved that this selfless woman has survived to tell not just her own tale, but those of other victims of totalitarianism as well.
Poem Without a Hero [Excerpt]
By Anna Akhmatova
It’s banal to say.
I’ll leave it to others to explain...
For one moment of peace
I would give the peace of the tomb.
November 14, 2025
CW: This book depicts a lot of sexual violence.
I got about 100 pages in before I quit in disgust. What an awful book.
ETA: Okay, some elaboration. This book was relentless.
I wept for Elena. There was not a shred of hope or light in this book. It felt like the author was exploiting this poor fictional woman and causing her pain to make a point. Ultimately, it felt misogynistic to me.
ETA 2, several years later: Thinking about this book after pondering the question "What is the worst book you've ever read?" and of course, it's this guy. It's not that I didn't finish it, I COULDN'T finish it. It was so utterly bleak and devoid of hope watching the main character suffer increasingly worse torments that it felt like I was being tortured myself. The underlying message of "totalitarianism is bad" is completely correct, but if your book is so viscerally unpleasant to experience, it doesn't matter how valid your point is. Now I'm wondering if the author doesn't WANT people to finish it...
I got about 100 pages in before I quit in disgust. What an awful book.
ETA: Okay, some elaboration. This book was relentless.
I wept for Elena. There was not a shred of hope or light in this book. It felt like the author was exploiting this poor fictional woman and causing her pain to make a point. Ultimately, it felt misogynistic to me.
ETA 2, several years later: Thinking about this book after pondering the question "What is the worst book you've ever read?" and of course, it's this guy. It's not that I didn't finish it, I COULDN'T finish it. It was so utterly bleak and devoid of hope watching the main character suffer increasingly worse torments that it felt like I was being tortured myself. The underlying message of "totalitarianism is bad" is completely correct, but if your book is so viscerally unpleasant to experience, it doesn't matter how valid your point is. Now I'm wondering if the author doesn't WANT people to finish it...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2012
The first novel by a poet and writer who blazed to fame (or infamy) in the 1980s and then gradually became less and less fashionable until he’s now somewhat forgotten. *The Flute-Player* tells the story of Elena in a nameless city that is located in a repressive country that is an analogue of the Soviet Union under the regime of Stalin. The title of the book is somewhat misleading: Elena doesn’t learn to play the flute until almost the last chapter, but this is a very minor quibble. The writing is lyrical but clear, muscular yet sensitive, and the story ultimately is uplifting, despite the harrowing ordeals that Elena are her friends are forced to endure.
April 19, 2015
Read this in university in the 80s and was reminded of it recently by a book I've been reading in translation ... So I'm going to have to go back to it again and see what I make of it 30 years on. At the time it was a book I didn't particularly care for - and yet tiny details have lodged somewhere and resurface.
July 22, 2022
I’m just not sure. I’m not sure if I enjoyed the book, I’m not sure where it’s taking place, when or why. I’m not sure if the last page was missing or it was meant to finish mid sentence. Saying all this, there’s been more than a week since I finished it and I’m still thinking about it.
January 1, 2025
Often upsetting but I’m still thinking about it weeks later.
There’s a sexual assault basically every 25 pages. It’s brutal. Even if it is an accurate depiction of the times in which the book is based, it felt excessive to the point of bringing me to feel as if the author was misogynistic.
I wish the book had delved further into how Elena deals with the terrible things that happen to her, because when I read the story it felt as though Elena was portrayed as this individual who barely cared about what happened to her and just moved on from everything, forgetting it had ever happened. It made her feel almost inhuman, as if she was just an object for all these men, whether they were inspired by her artistically OR if they were the perpetrator of one of her assaults.
Overall, the themes in the book were super interesting. It made me wonder about what myself and my artist friends would do in a similar situation. But it was just really difficult to fully think about those grander ideas when I was constantly worried about when the next assault was going to happen.
There’s a sexual assault basically every 25 pages. It’s brutal. Even if it is an accurate depiction of the times in which the book is based, it felt excessive to the point of bringing me to feel as if the author was misogynistic.
I wish the book had delved further into how Elena deals with the terrible things that happen to her, because when I read the story it felt as though Elena was portrayed as this individual who barely cared about what happened to her and just moved on from everything, forgetting it had ever happened. It made her feel almost inhuman, as if she was just an object for all these men, whether they were inspired by her artistically OR if they were the perpetrator of one of her assaults.
Overall, the themes in the book were super interesting. It made me wonder about what myself and my artist friends would do in a similar situation. But it was just really difficult to fully think about those grander ideas when I was constantly worried about when the next assault was going to happen.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2021
A lively story of government oppression towards art. An interesting book from the laser sharp mind of DM Thomas. You can see the early rumblings of his book The White Hotel in this book. A book that feels distant in context for those of the west who never experienced artistic oppression. Bravo DM Thomas!
November 12, 2024
Well this was certainly different! At times disturbing, confusing, beautiful, funny, sexual, violent which I guess was pretty much what it was like for a single woman trying to survive during the war in Russia or pretty much any European country. Still not quite sure how I feel about this book but it definitely affected me and has invaded my thoughts and dreams.
November 20, 2021
Book was about women who lived in early days during civil wars, transition period of different government. Main character Elena described as fallen women, the novel was missing some specific details about date, time & place. One should read if one like mystery and complication
December 21, 2017
A troubling journey through an alternate Russia that isn't quite Russia as artists try to bring meaning to their lives living under a totalitarian regime. Lots of sex.
July 29, 2023
Soul crushing and thought provoking. I feel like I’ve discovered new emotions. Really liked the interwoven narration between the characters and the country as a whole.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews