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The Vexations
This "enthralling" debut novel and Wall Street Journal Top Ten Book of the Year circles the life of eccentric composer Erik Satie in La Belle Époque Paris and examines love, family, genius, and the madness of art (New York Times Book Review).
Erik Satie begins life with every possible advantage. But after the dual blows of his mother’s early death and his father’s breakdown upend his childhood, Erik and his younger siblings — Louise and Conrad — are scattered. Later, as an ambitious young composer, Erik flings himself into the Parisian art scene, aiming for greatness but achieving only notoriety.
As the years, then decades, pass, he alienates those in his circle as often as he inspires them, lashing out at friends and lovers like Claude Debussy and Suzanne Valadon. Only Louise and Conrad are steadfast allies. Together they strive to maintain their faith in their brother’s talent and hold fast the badly frayed threads of family. But in a journey that will take her from Normandy to Paris to Argentina, Louise is rocked by a severe loss that ultimately forces her into a reckoning with how Erik — obsessed with his art and hungry for fame — will never be the brother she’s wished for.
With her buoyant, vivid reimagination of an iconic artist’s eventful life, Caitlin Horrocks has written a captivating and ceaselessly entertaining novel about the tenacious bonds of family and the costs of greatness, both to ourselves and to those we love.
Erik Satie begins life with every possible advantage. But after the dual blows of his mother’s early death and his father’s breakdown upend his childhood, Erik and his younger siblings — Louise and Conrad — are scattered. Later, as an ambitious young composer, Erik flings himself into the Parisian art scene, aiming for greatness but achieving only notoriety.
As the years, then decades, pass, he alienates those in his circle as often as he inspires them, lashing out at friends and lovers like Claude Debussy and Suzanne Valadon. Only Louise and Conrad are steadfast allies. Together they strive to maintain their faith in their brother’s talent and hold fast the badly frayed threads of family. But in a journey that will take her from Normandy to Paris to Argentina, Louise is rocked by a severe loss that ultimately forces her into a reckoning with how Erik — obsessed with his art and hungry for fame — will never be the brother she’s wished for.
With her buoyant, vivid reimagination of an iconic artist’s eventful life, Caitlin Horrocks has written a captivating and ceaselessly entertaining novel about the tenacious bonds of family and the costs of greatness, both to ourselves and to those we love.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published July 30, 2019
About the author
Caitlin Horrocks
13 books138 followersCaitlin Horrocks is author of the novel The Vexations, named one of the top ten books of 2019 by the Wall Street Journal. Her story collection Life Among the Terranauts is coming out January 2021 from Little, Brown. Her debut story collection This Is Not Your City was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her stories and essays appear in The New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Tin House, One Story, and other journals and anthologies. She is an Editor-at-Large for the Kenyon Review and teaches at Grand Valley State University, and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 131 reviews
October 12, 2019
A gorgeously-penned novel that is nominally about real-life composer Erik Satie, but at its core is the story of the death of a possibility. Not of Erik Satie's, who Caitlin Horrocks shows to be an occasionally inspired, oft-petulant and paranoid genius, but of his sister Louise's, whose gender made her own career as a gifted musician a risible intention.
Satie's rise to fame as a composer in fin-de-siècle Paris occurred within an inner circle of family and fellow artists, and his ambitions reveal both the genuine struggle and the patriarchal privilege artists in all mediums faced or benefited from then, and now.
The Vexations has a multitude of narrators, including Satie; his siblings Conrad and Louise; his companion, painter and artist's model Suzanne; and collaborator, lyricist and poet, Philippe. I found this literary choice vexing at times, for it distanced me as a reader from Erik, and I felt it distanced the author from the character she most wanted to spend time with: Louise.
The Saties' mother died when the siblings were young. Their father left Conrad and Erik with their grandmother; Louise was taken to a great-uncle and raised to be a docile, lightly educated Catholic young woman, devoid of any ambition other than to marry well. The boys are eventually reunited with their father in Paris and allowed aspirations. Conrad is drawn into respectable business. Erik's pursuits land him in bohemian Paris, ascending the steep streets above the Pigalle to the wilds of Montmartre, where the avant-garde and the tawdry rub elbows and raise goats in sprawling, meadowed backyards. Horrocks immerses the reader in this landscape, deliciously evoking the circles of artists, composers, poets, writers, and painters who created the stylized dilettantism of La Belle Epoque Paris.
But this is Louise's story, as evidenced by the first person perspective given to her character, the only one who is allowed such closeness to the reader and her own agency. Louise takes us from the Satie childhood home in Normandy to post-WWII Buenos Aires, where she retreats for safety, privacy, and employment like so many Europeans during and after the war. The reader is left to wonder, had Louise been given the opportunities afforded her brothers, which Satie would we be celebrating and remembering via Spotify playlists and movie soundtracks? There is no denying Erik's genius, but we must recognize the genius denied in Louise.
A powerful, engrossing novel. Highly recommended.
Satie's rise to fame as a composer in fin-de-siècle Paris occurred within an inner circle of family and fellow artists, and his ambitions reveal both the genuine struggle and the patriarchal privilege artists in all mediums faced or benefited from then, and now.
The Vexations has a multitude of narrators, including Satie; his siblings Conrad and Louise; his companion, painter and artist's model Suzanne; and collaborator, lyricist and poet, Philippe. I found this literary choice vexing at times, for it distanced me as a reader from Erik, and I felt it distanced the author from the character she most wanted to spend time with: Louise.
The Saties' mother died when the siblings were young. Their father left Conrad and Erik with their grandmother; Louise was taken to a great-uncle and raised to be a docile, lightly educated Catholic young woman, devoid of any ambition other than to marry well. The boys are eventually reunited with their father in Paris and allowed aspirations. Conrad is drawn into respectable business. Erik's pursuits land him in bohemian Paris, ascending the steep streets above the Pigalle to the wilds of Montmartre, where the avant-garde and the tawdry rub elbows and raise goats in sprawling, meadowed backyards. Horrocks immerses the reader in this landscape, deliciously evoking the circles of artists, composers, poets, writers, and painters who created the stylized dilettantism of La Belle Epoque Paris.
But this is Louise's story, as evidenced by the first person perspective given to her character, the only one who is allowed such closeness to the reader and her own agency. Louise takes us from the Satie childhood home in Normandy to post-WWII Buenos Aires, where she retreats for safety, privacy, and employment like so many Europeans during and after the war. The reader is left to wonder, had Louise been given the opportunities afforded her brothers, which Satie would we be celebrating and remembering via Spotify playlists and movie soundtracks? There is no denying Erik's genius, but we must recognize the genius denied in Louise.
A powerful, engrossing novel. Highly recommended.
February 8, 2020
I love Erik Satie’s music, and I expected to love this book. Unfortunately, there is too little of Erik in it and too much about his family, particularly his sister Louise. There are chapters from the points of view of Erik’s brother, sister and various friends. I reached the 55% point of this long book and still had not gotten a feel for La Belle Époque Paris as promised in the blurb. The blurb is also wrong when it says this book is “ceaselessly entertaining”. I started skipping the chapters that didn’t feature Erik and the book did finally get to his collaboration with Serge Diaghilev, Picasso and Jean Cocteau. I’m afraid that this book wasn’t what I expected. Maybe I will read a biography of Erik Satie. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
July 2, 2019
On February 18, 2018, we attended the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's French Festival to hear Claude Debussy's orchestration of Erik Satie's Gymnopédies Nos.1 & 3 along with music by Dukas, Saint-Saens, and Offenbach.
I had not realized previously how much I loved French music! I wanted to attend every one of the concerts. The two Gymnopedies were the only music by Satie performed during the festival--only because Debussy had orchestrated them. The music Satie wrote before he was twenty-two-years-old is his best known. Reading Caitlin Horrocks' debut novel The Vexations I realized how little I knew about French composers and La Belle Époque Paris.
The Vexations centers on the life of the composer Erik Satie (1866-1925), bringing to life Paris's Bohemian society of eccentric and cutting-edge artists.
The novel also tells the story of Erik's siblings, separated as orphans after their mother's death. Conrad Satie leads a respectable life as a chemist in a perfume factory. Louise is a talented musician whose short-lived marriage leaves her and her son dependent on her in-law's wealth.
Erik is a frustrating personality, an eccentric genius who would not be shoved into expected boxes artistically or socially. People didn't understand his music. His love affair with Susan Valadon lasted six months. He did not really seem to connect to people or need intimacy. During his life he was notorious. By the time of his death, his family and even most of his friends were no longer speaking with him.
In later life, Satie was associated with Surrealism, including writing music for the Ballets Russe, Parade directed by Cocteau with Picasso costumes.
I became very taken by Louise Satie's story, the limitations society placed on a female. Pressured to marry well, she waited for passion. And when she found herself a young widow, one night of passion labeled her a whore. She clung to her son, but the legal system gave his custody to male relatives. She moved to South American and outlived the rest of her family, long enough to discover her brother Erik had become famous, long enough to understand life.
Satie's most well-known music remains the Gymnopieds.
The novel has left me with an earworm, sadness, and a better feel for the society and time that produced some of my favorite music.
After I finished the novel I discovered Horrocks is a writing instructor at Grand Valley State University. And that our son, who graduated from GVSU with a writing major, counted her as one of his best and most favorite professors!
I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
I had not realized previously how much I loved French music! I wanted to attend every one of the concerts. The two Gymnopedies were the only music by Satie performed during the festival--only because Debussy had orchestrated them. The music Satie wrote before he was twenty-two-years-old is his best known. Reading Caitlin Horrocks' debut novel The Vexations I realized how little I knew about French composers and La Belle Époque Paris.
The Vexations centers on the life of the composer Erik Satie (1866-1925), bringing to life Paris's Bohemian society of eccentric and cutting-edge artists.
The novel also tells the story of Erik's siblings, separated as orphans after their mother's death. Conrad Satie leads a respectable life as a chemist in a perfume factory. Louise is a talented musician whose short-lived marriage leaves her and her son dependent on her in-law's wealth.
Erik is a frustrating personality, an eccentric genius who would not be shoved into expected boxes artistically or socially. People didn't understand his music. His love affair with Susan Valadon lasted six months. He did not really seem to connect to people or need intimacy. During his life he was notorious. By the time of his death, his family and even most of his friends were no longer speaking with him.
In later life, Satie was associated with Surrealism, including writing music for the Ballets Russe, Parade directed by Cocteau with Picasso costumes.
I became very taken by Louise Satie's story, the limitations society placed on a female. Pressured to marry well, she waited for passion. And when she found herself a young widow, one night of passion labeled her a whore. She clung to her son, but the legal system gave his custody to male relatives. She moved to South American and outlived the rest of her family, long enough to discover her brother Erik had become famous, long enough to understand life.
Satie's most well-known music remains the Gymnopieds.
The novel has left me with an earworm, sadness, and a better feel for the society and time that produced some of my favorite music.
After I finished the novel I discovered Horrocks is a writing instructor at Grand Valley State University. And that our son, who graduated from GVSU with a writing major, counted her as one of his best and most favorite professors!
I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
June 26, 2026
This book is promoted as a historical novel about the life of French pianist and composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) and the Belle Époque era (1871-1914) in Paris in which he lived. The story is told both through descriptions of his life, and also the lives of his brother, sister, and acquaintances who were part of his life. The portion of the book's narrative about his sister Louise is in first person voice and takes up a significant portion of the book. All other narratives are in third person.
By checking the table of contents of the audio edition of the book I was able to determine how much of the book was devoted to the different people in Erik Satie's life as listed below. The number in parentheses is the percentage of the book's narrative focused on their life.
The author did not provide an author's note commenting of how and where this book deviates from actual history. From the Wikipedia article about Eric Satie I see that his sister's name was Olga. From other sources I've learned that her full name was Louise-Olga-Jeannie Satie, and the author simply chose to use Louise for this book. I presume the broad outline of the character's lives as depicted in the book follow what's known from history. Erik's friend Philippe in the book was actually named Contamine de Latour. However, it's clear in the book that the name Philippe was a nom de plume.
This book's writing is well crafted but complex. I found I needed to listen to portions of the text more than once to make sure I hadn't missed something. The book's story is told mostly through thoughts and conversations of characters in a non-linear timeline.
By checking the table of contents of the audio edition of the book I was able to determine how much of the book was devoted to the different people in Erik Satie's life as listed below. The number in parentheses is the percentage of the book's narrative focused on their life.
(38%) Louise—sisterAs can be seen from the above tabulation one could say the book is more about Erik's sister than it is about him, but that's a good thing since Erik was a bit of genius dilettante, probably not all that interesting of a life.
(23%) Philippe—friend and early collaborator
(20%) Erik
(12%) Suzanne Valadon—lover for brief time
(7%) Conrad—brother
The author did not provide an author's note commenting of how and where this book deviates from actual history. From the Wikipedia article about Eric Satie I see that his sister's name was Olga. From other sources I've learned that her full name was Louise-Olga-Jeannie Satie, and the author simply chose to use Louise for this book. I presume the broad outline of the character's lives as depicted in the book follow what's known from history. Erik's friend Philippe in the book was actually named Contamine de Latour. However, it's clear in the book that the name Philippe was a nom de plume.
This book's writing is well crafted but complex. I found I needed to listen to portions of the text more than once to make sure I hadn't missed something. The book's story is told mostly through thoughts and conversations of characters in a non-linear timeline.
June 17, 2019
I'm totally under this book's spell. The Vexations is as funny as it is beautiful. It's about making art in the big city, but it's also about the absurdity of playing the role of a Great Artist. It's about family and how deep those ties can cut, but it's also about the leeway we give our most ridiculous loved ones. It's about Belle Epoque Paris, with all of its rowdy salons and ink-stained studios, but it's also about how much it sucks to be full of ideas while nursing empty stomachs and pockets. Every character is drawn with rueful empathy, and you'll love them all, including the bombastic Erik.
July 16, 2019
I read 115 pages of this novel and still didn't care about any of the characters. I would return to the book each night before bed having forgotten what it was about. I picked up another book on my list, read 15 pages and was hooked. So....the writing maybe? The subject matter? The pace? Yes, all of those things makes The Vexations too vexing to keep reading. I've said it before and I'll say it again: life is too short for bad books.
February 4, 2020
In a word: Exceptional.
The Vexations is a gorgeous, sweeping tale chronicling the life of composer Erik Satie and those in his orbit.
Prior to reading this, I would never have professed any particular interest in Satie or his work. The book does contain general themes that are regular favorites, such as musical history and this period of history in France (especially regarding the art and literature of the era), but as to the central subject, I confess to being largely ignorant and indifferent prior to reading this. I suppose all of this is proof that absolutely anything becomes fascinating if the right person is writing about it, and Horrocks proved to be exactly that for the topic.
Horrocks has done commendably thorough research on her subject, but she has also done an exceptionally good job of filling in the blanks to build out the narrative.
How do we even classify this book? Certainly it can be described as a Family Saga (though Erik is the heart of the story, one might argue that Louise, Phillippe and even Conrad are just as central to the plot), but the term feels too limiting, as this book is more than just this sub-genre.
To call it a fictionalized biography cheapens it and, I think, does not do proper justice to Horrocks’ abilities as a researcher and integrator of said research into unverifiable components of the narrative. Perhaps the broader descriptor of the book as simply Historical Fiction is best, though I would certainly defer to the author on the matter.
Finally, I recommend enhancing the reader experience of this book by listening to Satie’s work while reading. I began with the Gymnopédies, progressed to the Gnossiennes, and ultimately moved to the Vexations, for which the book is eponymously titled. I hope I didn’t fail Erik’s memory by not making it through all 840 repetitions.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
The Vexations is a gorgeous, sweeping tale chronicling the life of composer Erik Satie and those in his orbit.
Prior to reading this, I would never have professed any particular interest in Satie or his work. The book does contain general themes that are regular favorites, such as musical history and this period of history in France (especially regarding the art and literature of the era), but as to the central subject, I confess to being largely ignorant and indifferent prior to reading this. I suppose all of this is proof that absolutely anything becomes fascinating if the right person is writing about it, and Horrocks proved to be exactly that for the topic.
Horrocks has done commendably thorough research on her subject, but she has also done an exceptionally good job of filling in the blanks to build out the narrative.
How do we even classify this book? Certainly it can be described as a Family Saga (though Erik is the heart of the story, one might argue that Louise, Phillippe and even Conrad are just as central to the plot), but the term feels too limiting, as this book is more than just this sub-genre.
To call it a fictionalized biography cheapens it and, I think, does not do proper justice to Horrocks’ abilities as a researcher and integrator of said research into unverifiable components of the narrative. Perhaps the broader descriptor of the book as simply Historical Fiction is best, though I would certainly defer to the author on the matter.
Finally, I recommend enhancing the reader experience of this book by listening to Satie’s work while reading. I began with the Gymnopédies, progressed to the Gnossiennes, and ultimately moved to the Vexations, for which the book is eponymously titled. I hope I didn’t fail Erik’s memory by not making it through all 840 repetitions.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
September 23, 2019
Many years ago I happened upon Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie #1. This piece of music instantly awakened a host of emotions - awe, wonder, longing and melancholy. When I saw this fictionalized story of his life I was thrilled. The Vexations begins with the grieving Satie family arriving, from Paris, on the doorstep of Mr. Satie’s mother. In a flash the widower departs leaving Erik, his sister and baby brother in the dubious care of their grandmother. Each child must then endure forced separation from one another as Erik is sent to boarding school, his sister to live with a great uncle and little brother to return to their father and his new wife. Their stories are told in alternating chapters as they subsequently seek ways to form relationships, a sense of family and reconciliation. The early loss, abandonment and separation figure intensely in each of their futures. The author does a fantastic job of creating the historical setting as a background with which to better understand the cantankerous and self destructive Satie. She possesses a deft touch, confidently expressing the highs and lows of Satie as well as his close contemporaries. She also offers more than a glimpse into the private hells of single women during la Belle Époque. Few escape spiraling downward. Some are redeemed. Satie dies young still tortured by self doubt, frustration at his inability to externalize his imaginative inner world, and feeling rampant jealousy towards others deemed more successful. It is clear that the years of pain and loss wore deeply on this family. Even without this book Satie would be remembered but the author has delivered a fascinating story worthy of such a creative man, his close companions and siblings.
July 16, 2019
Thanks to a Goodreads giveaway, I enjoyed an advance copy of THE VEXATIONS.
French composer and pianist Erik Satie lived from 1866 to 1925 and was part of a memorable era of artistic change in Paris. Friends and acquaintances such as Claude Debussy, Picasso, Cocteau, Man Ray, and his one love, Suzanne Veladon endured his unpredictable and often fiery temperament while recognizing his exceptional talents. Descriptions of Satie include terms such as eccentric, dysfunctional, maverick, avant-guarde, irascible, and brilliant, at their extreme levels. Were he alive today, he might be treated for mental illness, most likely bipolar disorder. His superior intelligence would have made his life more difficult as well. After his mother died he was separated from his siblings and sent to a boarding school where such a mind as his was unlikely to fit in and be understood.
Author Caitlin Horrocks takes the reader into his life among the raucous cafe society during his years playing piano as part of the various acts which stretched the limits of morality in Paris at the time.
The book is a concentric series of stories, changing narrators as we glean the views not only of Erik, but his sister Louise, brother Conrad, friend Philippe, and his love, Suzanne. Actually, his sister Louise steals the show much of the time and seems to anchor the saga.
THE VEXATIONS is a sure hit with its imaginative interpretation of Satie's life, writing that keeps the story flowing and the reader engaged, and a fascinating subject about whom most of us probably know very little. A good choice for a book group to share.
I am thrilled to find a new novel that has cultural and literary significance.
French composer and pianist Erik Satie lived from 1866 to 1925 and was part of a memorable era of artistic change in Paris. Friends and acquaintances such as Claude Debussy, Picasso, Cocteau, Man Ray, and his one love, Suzanne Veladon endured his unpredictable and often fiery temperament while recognizing his exceptional talents. Descriptions of Satie include terms such as eccentric, dysfunctional, maverick, avant-guarde, irascible, and brilliant, at their extreme levels. Were he alive today, he might be treated for mental illness, most likely bipolar disorder. His superior intelligence would have made his life more difficult as well. After his mother died he was separated from his siblings and sent to a boarding school where such a mind as his was unlikely to fit in and be understood.
Author Caitlin Horrocks takes the reader into his life among the raucous cafe society during his years playing piano as part of the various acts which stretched the limits of morality in Paris at the time.
The book is a concentric series of stories, changing narrators as we glean the views not only of Erik, but his sister Louise, brother Conrad, friend Philippe, and his love, Suzanne. Actually, his sister Louise steals the show much of the time and seems to anchor the saga.
THE VEXATIONS is a sure hit with its imaginative interpretation of Satie's life, writing that keeps the story flowing and the reader engaged, and a fascinating subject about whom most of us probably know very little. A good choice for a book group to share.
I am thrilled to find a new novel that has cultural and literary significance.
September 29, 2019
This book is gorgeously written, the backdrop of fin-de-siècle Paris absolutely as fascinating as you would imagine. But the title's allusion both to one of Satie's famous pieces and to feelings of frustration, irritation, and worry bespeaks the sense of thwartedness that proves contrapuntal to the "great man" narrative that biographies of a genius typically espouse. Though Satie is one of the narrators in this novel, he is by no means the featured narrator. Each of the other narrators are disqualified from the title of genius in some way: a queer-curious Spanish immigrant who ultimately makes money through translation rather than sticking to a penurious life as a poet; Satie's brother Conrad who succeeds moderately in the perfume industry, though not because of an artistic vision (sense of smell?), and enjoys a happy marriage; Satie's sister Louise whose possibilities in life seem constrained by the necessity of marriage, whose legal rights are nil (as her experience with motherhood underscores), and whose musical talents turn to piano lessons, not composition; Satie's friend and potential lover, Suzanne, an artist's model more often celebrated for her voluptuous flesh than for her own paintings.
This multi-narrator structure makes the world of the novel that much more absorbing; Horrocks captures these voices with a nuance of consciousness and impression that imbues historical fiction with rich psychological realism. It also, however, conveys a political message. The category of "genius" encompasses both the stamp of canonical approval about an artist's oeuvre and also the behavioral latitude and financial means to spend time thinking, imagining, inventing, defying norms, pursuing experiments. Because Satie is a man and the scion of a wealthy family, his erratic behavior, reflecting mental illness and alcoholism, doesn't get him locked up or cause him to starve to death. He has the undisputed right to live autonomously, unlike his sister Louise. Even though his work is strange and people don't know how to interpret some of his performances and tones, he still accrues acolytes who assume the greatness of his work, unlike Suzanne whose technique is understood to reflect her flawed training. I was impressed that Horrocks was both able to communicate a depth of appreciation for Satie's work and empathy for his troubled life and outsized ambitions, while also questioning the terms through which we determine genius in the first place.
Like Monique Truong's The Sweetest Fruits, Horrocks takes up Virginia Woolf's call in A Room of One's Own to think about the Judith Shakespeares who were marginalized, maddened, and married while their brothers received acclaim thanks to their autonomy and privilege, the space and time in which art flourishes.
This multi-narrator structure makes the world of the novel that much more absorbing; Horrocks captures these voices with a nuance of consciousness and impression that imbues historical fiction with rich psychological realism. It also, however, conveys a political message. The category of "genius" encompasses both the stamp of canonical approval about an artist's oeuvre and also the behavioral latitude and financial means to spend time thinking, imagining, inventing, defying norms, pursuing experiments. Because Satie is a man and the scion of a wealthy family, his erratic behavior, reflecting mental illness and alcoholism, doesn't get him locked up or cause him to starve to death. He has the undisputed right to live autonomously, unlike his sister Louise. Even though his work is strange and people don't know how to interpret some of his performances and tones, he still accrues acolytes who assume the greatness of his work, unlike Suzanne whose technique is understood to reflect her flawed training. I was impressed that Horrocks was both able to communicate a depth of appreciation for Satie's work and empathy for his troubled life and outsized ambitions, while also questioning the terms through which we determine genius in the first place.
Like Monique Truong's The Sweetest Fruits, Horrocks takes up Virginia Woolf's call in A Room of One's Own to think about the Judith Shakespeares who were marginalized, maddened, and married while their brothers received acclaim thanks to their autonomy and privilege, the space and time in which art flourishes.
July 16, 2019
The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks is a fascinating novel that revolves around the life of Eric Satie, a French composer; to be honest, I had never heard of Satie even though I consider myself a lover of music. However, after reading this debut novel I can say that i have been given great insight into this remarkable artist. The novel entwines the lives of Satie's brother Conrad and of his sister Louise; it is sometimes humorous and sometimes heartbreaking, but always honest. The book is well-written and spellbinding as well as being informative. The characters are well-developed, especially Louise, who tells much of the story. The book delves into the madness often associated with genius and presents the characters in an honest and forthright manner. The book is both captivating and entertaining and I highly recommend it.
September 11, 2019
Disclaimer: I went to college with Caitlin, so am predisposed to like this and praise it. That said, this is well worth the read for anyone interested in Paris during the late 1880s and into the 1910s, artistic culture in Montmarte, classical music, and the idea of genius and what toll that takes on not only the so-called genius, but also those in that person’s life. Horrocks traces the life of composer Eric Satie from childhood to death, and along the way also traces the lives of his sister (the real story-stealer, the only narrator in first person), his brother, his best friend, and his once-love interest, famous artist Suzanne Valadon. Horrocks’ empathy for them all is evident, and I found myself desperate to know how they all turned out. An excellent read that is both immersive and philosophical. What does it take to create? What are our obligations to those we love? What keeps us around or drives us away? What do we do when our plans don’t just go awry, but crumble into something unrecognizable and even untenable?
December 11, 2019
As with Caitlin Horrocks’ other book, I am giving this a very solid 4.5 stars. Those of you who have not read Horrocks – and I imagine that’s a good number --, do yourselves a favor and pick this up, or her wonderful collection of short stories, This is Not Your City, one of my favorite reads of 2013.
A novel “about” French composer Erik Satie, this fictionalized version tells his story and that of several of his significant relationships. In her Acknowledgements, Horrocks says “In this book, I have aimed to color inside the lines, so to speak, of what is known about Erik Satie’s life and work, as well as what records remain of his family members and associates . . . Where the record stops, I have invented. . . The novel is shaped, even governed by facts, but it is a work of fiction.”
Chapters rotate various POVs: that of Erik himself, his siblings, Conrad and Louise, and select friends and lovers, a technique that illuminates all the characters’ lives and personalities beautifully and robustly. De siè·cle France is a great era to watch an eccentric life unfold, although Erik’s is not the only fascinating life in this story.
I love Horrocks’ writing style. The prose is lovely, fresh and on-pointe, without being fussy.
“One evening I watched him holding Eric’s hand in both of his own, brushing each finder joint, as if making sure every piece of his child was accounted for.”
“Conrad was gangly and awkward, swinging helplessly between childhood and adulthood as if he’d had a chair kicked out of from under him.”
“If God really did go around closing doors and opening windows, then each life was a giant house full of blowing curtains and broken locks, all of us wandering from room to room.”
Definitely a talent to watch.
A novel “about” French composer Erik Satie, this fictionalized version tells his story and that of several of his significant relationships. In her Acknowledgements, Horrocks says “In this book, I have aimed to color inside the lines, so to speak, of what is known about Erik Satie’s life and work, as well as what records remain of his family members and associates . . . Where the record stops, I have invented. . . The novel is shaped, even governed by facts, but it is a work of fiction.”
Chapters rotate various POVs: that of Erik himself, his siblings, Conrad and Louise, and select friends and lovers, a technique that illuminates all the characters’ lives and personalities beautifully and robustly. De siè·cle France is a great era to watch an eccentric life unfold, although Erik’s is not the only fascinating life in this story.
I love Horrocks’ writing style. The prose is lovely, fresh and on-pointe, without being fussy.
“One evening I watched him holding Eric’s hand in both of his own, brushing each finder joint, as if making sure every piece of his child was accounted for.”
“Conrad was gangly and awkward, swinging helplessly between childhood and adulthood as if he’d had a chair kicked out of from under him.”
“If God really did go around closing doors and opening windows, then each life was a giant house full of blowing curtains and broken locks, all of us wandering from room to room.”
Definitely a talent to watch.
September 5, 2019
This is the first I've read of Caitlin Horrocks' work, but after The Vexations I will be on the lookout for all she writes. This is historical fiction done very well. Horrocks never writes a lazy sentence, for one thing, so I was constantly going back to read over the subtlety of a perfect metaphor, the physical description of a new character, a bit of Parisian setting.
But the story itself is also deeply engaging, thanks to the author's ability to bring French composer Erik Satie and his siblings to life. I found Louise to be especially well-imagined, and I think the writer's decision to tell that part of the story in first person works to bring real emotion to the tale. After 447 pages I was sad to leave these characters behind; if anything, I would have read more about the villain, and enjoyed more scenes between Louise, her husband, and her son. But if storytellers want to leave their readers wanting more, this book succeeds on that score*, even as it satisfies.
Finally, not since Rebecca Makkai's Music for Wartime have I been determined, as a person completely lacking in musical education, to learn more about how and why musicians do what they do. I'm off to listen to some Satie.
*oops on the pun!
But the story itself is also deeply engaging, thanks to the author's ability to bring French composer Erik Satie and his siblings to life. I found Louise to be especially well-imagined, and I think the writer's decision to tell that part of the story in first person works to bring real emotion to the tale. After 447 pages I was sad to leave these characters behind; if anything, I would have read more about the villain, and enjoyed more scenes between Louise, her husband, and her son. But if storytellers want to leave their readers wanting more, this book succeeds on that score*, even as it satisfies.
Finally, not since Rebecca Makkai's Music for Wartime have I been determined, as a person completely lacking in musical education, to learn more about how and why musicians do what they do. I'm off to listen to some Satie.
*oops on the pun!
September 24, 2019
Well. What to say?
I was halfway through the book and realized I didn’t care about any of the characters or what happens to them (except Louise Satie) and that I was going to have a hard time making it to the end.
However, I DID make it to the end and am sorry that I did not enjoy it more. The writing is fine but the subject matter - Erik Satie becoming increasingly alienated and alienating- is definitely not “captivating and ceaselessly entertaining”.
I was halfway through the book and realized I didn’t care about any of the characters or what happens to them (except Louise Satie) and that I was going to have a hard time making it to the end.
However, I DID make it to the end and am sorry that I did not enjoy it more. The writing is fine but the subject matter - Erik Satie becoming increasingly alienated and alienating- is definitely not “captivating and ceaselessly entertaining”.
November 28, 2019
This book was so appealing to me. It is historical fiction based on the life and times of French composer Erik Satie and his siblings. From the very beginning, I loved the melancholy mood and the gorgeous writing. The chapters alternate between the various characters, who add perspectives over time and place. An overall well designed and written book.
September 4, 2019
Very hard for me to believe that everyone can't love this as much as I do! Maybe it's because I'm such a francophile, or because I like stories about superbly strange artists. But I did love this book. Below is the written text of a short review I did on Michigan radio:
The Vexations
Caitlin Horrocks
Little Brown and Company
Reviewed by Keith Taylor
Most of us have heard of Erik Satie. Many of us have a vague impression of his music – moody, movie music that plays behind sad or sometimes slowly passionate scenes in European films. There are any number of melodies we all know – say his Gymnopedie #1 -- but many of us would be startled to learn that they were written by Satie. This seems to be music that is just out there in the world, existing all on its own. Timeless. Authorless.
After reading Caitlin Horrocks’ new historical novel, The Vexations, based on Satie’s wildly eccentric life, I have the distinct impression that this is the way the composer wanted his music to be remembered. Satie made what living he could accompanying cabaret acts in the Montmartre district of Paris during the last years of the 19th and the first years of the 20th centuries. Yes, this is the world of the late impressionists and the young Picasso; it is the world that invented surrealism, a term coined to critique an opera Satie wrote; it is the world of Proust, although Satie was several rungs down the socio-economic ladder. It is a world we’ve mythologized, and Horrocks, a professor of creative writing at Grand Valley State University, is brilliant at bringing us into this world, this myth, from a different angle.
The Vexations, the title itself, might refer to an impossible piece comprising a simple line of music repeated 840 times over at least 10 hours, a piece the composer himself never expected anyone to ever perform, although the last few decades have proven him wrong. You can find recent performances on YouTube. But really in Horrocks’ novel, the vexations are those other people – Satie’s long suffering family, particularly his brother and sister who share center stage of this novel; friends like Debussy and Cocteau; the painter Suzanne Valadon, the only lover he ever had, and a host of others inhabiting what was then the underbelly of Paris – the people who Satie loved but couldn’t understand, those who definitely didn’t understand him or the conditions of his genius.
There might be someone out there who will criticize Caitlin Horrocks for the dialogue, family dynamic, and plot lines she has created for these lives, but don’t listen to them. She has used her fiction to bring this fascinating and supremely odd composer to life, and to remind us of those songs that in her words “become so ubiquitous they are nearly white noise, but then they catch your ear and are beautiful all over again. They are wallpaper that can make you cry.”
And here is a link to the radio review itself, although you'll have to scroll down to the end of this episode. Worth listening to because the radio put some Satie behind my words:
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/st...
The Vexations
Caitlin Horrocks
Little Brown and Company
Reviewed by Keith Taylor
Most of us have heard of Erik Satie. Many of us have a vague impression of his music – moody, movie music that plays behind sad or sometimes slowly passionate scenes in European films. There are any number of melodies we all know – say his Gymnopedie #1 -- but many of us would be startled to learn that they were written by Satie. This seems to be music that is just out there in the world, existing all on its own. Timeless. Authorless.
After reading Caitlin Horrocks’ new historical novel, The Vexations, based on Satie’s wildly eccentric life, I have the distinct impression that this is the way the composer wanted his music to be remembered. Satie made what living he could accompanying cabaret acts in the Montmartre district of Paris during the last years of the 19th and the first years of the 20th centuries. Yes, this is the world of the late impressionists and the young Picasso; it is the world that invented surrealism, a term coined to critique an opera Satie wrote; it is the world of Proust, although Satie was several rungs down the socio-economic ladder. It is a world we’ve mythologized, and Horrocks, a professor of creative writing at Grand Valley State University, is brilliant at bringing us into this world, this myth, from a different angle.
The Vexations, the title itself, might refer to an impossible piece comprising a simple line of music repeated 840 times over at least 10 hours, a piece the composer himself never expected anyone to ever perform, although the last few decades have proven him wrong. You can find recent performances on YouTube. But really in Horrocks’ novel, the vexations are those other people – Satie’s long suffering family, particularly his brother and sister who share center stage of this novel; friends like Debussy and Cocteau; the painter Suzanne Valadon, the only lover he ever had, and a host of others inhabiting what was then the underbelly of Paris – the people who Satie loved but couldn’t understand, those who definitely didn’t understand him or the conditions of his genius.
There might be someone out there who will criticize Caitlin Horrocks for the dialogue, family dynamic, and plot lines she has created for these lives, but don’t listen to them. She has used her fiction to bring this fascinating and supremely odd composer to life, and to remind us of those songs that in her words “become so ubiquitous they are nearly white noise, but then they catch your ear and are beautiful all over again. They are wallpaper that can make you cry.”
And here is a link to the radio review itself, although you'll have to scroll down to the end of this episode. Worth listening to because the radio put some Satie behind my words:
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/st...
September 14, 2019
A sweeping novel spanning years and exploring not only the life of eccentric composer Erik Satie, but also the lives of those closest to him and the effect he has on them. I enjoyed this novel and if anything, would have loved to hear even more from Louise, Satie’s sister. I also really liked Suzanne’s sections. So maybe I am partial to the female voices in the novel. In addition, I appreciated how historical details were weaved in as I didn’t previously know much about this era.
Caitlin was my writing professor so I have some bias as I think she’s not only a wonderful teacher but a highly talented and versatile writer. I appreciated how she managed to weave in so many voices so seamlessly and how effortlessly she moved the narrative forward and backward in time.
I definitely look forward to reading what Caitlin writes next!
Caitlin was my writing professor so I have some bias as I think she’s not only a wonderful teacher but a highly talented and versatile writer. I appreciated how she managed to weave in so many voices so seamlessly and how effortlessly she moved the narrative forward and backward in time.
I definitely look forward to reading what Caitlin writes next!
December 12, 2019
The pacing is slow but the writing is lovely, and the book as a whole is very sweet, if a bit shaggy at times. The characters, Erik Satie and his family and a few people in his orbit ("friends" isn't quite the word) are often obtuse even to themselves and able to connect only in small explosions of affection (except for younger brother Conrad, who is the steadfast rudder of everyone's lives). Still, they're sweet in spite of—or maybe because of—their essential sadnesses. Mothers and sons don't fare well here, although not for lack of love. The final part in sister Louise's voice, about how the dead brush against you softly like fur, is worth the price of admission alone—particularly the passage where she has a clerk in a department store take out all the fur coats and walks among them, just to commune: "Hello ghosts. You are so, so soft."
It's worth having Satie's music in your head when you open the book, even just the Gymnopédies—and if you think you're not familiar with them you're probably wrong. Give them a listen on YouTube. They're very nice and an effective soundtrack to the entire novel.
It's worth having Satie's music in your head when you open the book, even just the Gymnopédies—and if you think you're not familiar with them you're probably wrong. Give them a listen on YouTube. They're very nice and an effective soundtrack to the entire novel.
April 23, 2020
To say this book is about Erik Satie would be a misconception. To truly understand someone, you need to look at the people around them and the impact this person has had on their life. In the lieu of this, The Vexations is about the life of Erik Satie through the eyes of the people closest to him: his siblings, his one-time lover, and his closest friend. Horrocks does a wonderful job of capturing the closest thing to the true character of Satie by giving us both his own perspective and an outsider's perspective. She also does a wonderful job of acquainting you with all the characters and taking you straight into the smokey, bohemian life of Paris at the turn of the century, letting you glance into the lives of the artists, writers, and musicians at the center of La Belle Epoque and also the lives of the everyday citizens of Paris.
I absolutely loved the writing in this novel. It was eloquent, flowing, and lushly packed with emotion. It read like a story rather than a biography, drawing you into the fictionalized lives of very real people.
4/5 stars for being a great work of historical fiction. If you in any way enjoy music or history, give this book a try! And while you're at it, give Satie's music a listen (the 1st Gymnopedie is one of my favorites)!
I absolutely loved the writing in this novel. It was eloquent, flowing, and lushly packed with emotion. It read like a story rather than a biography, drawing you into the fictionalized lives of very real people.
4/5 stars for being a great work of historical fiction. If you in any way enjoy music or history, give this book a try! And while you're at it, give Satie's music a listen (the 1st Gymnopedie is one of my favorites)!
July 23, 2021
This book rocked! It's based on a famous french musician, Eric Satie,whose piano pieces have long charmed me. I learned that in his day, he was quite the radical, something like Monet who was also rejected by the leaders of the art world in his day. The shifts in points of view, between Eric, a young Spanish poet, Eric's sister, his brother, Eric's artist friend/lover and others, propelled me into the complexities of class, art, and the social situation of women of that day, always with the desire to know what would happen next. It was a time when women had few choices--whether she was from an upper class family or the daughter of rural woman abandoned by her husband. In the novel intrepid women, like artist Suzanne Valadon, navigate their way with insight within a restrictive, sometimes hostile, world, and still manage to do things they love, whether it's making love or painting. But there can be severe cost's to an artist's ambition. Eric's two siblings maintain their faith in their brother’s talent and, despite being orphaned, make a kind of family. The story travels from Normandy to Paris to Argentina, in a fascinating look at another age.
August 14, 2019
I knew the name Erik Satie, but nothing else about him and if I have heard his music, then it was without having any idea, and so I found this a very interesting historical fiction novel. France, in the Belle Epoque, comes alive, a very dirty place filled with the haves and the have-nots, and those striving to be composers, poets, artists, and the like. The character I found most fascinating wasn't Satie actually - and indeed why he was as he was, whatever mental issues he may have had which caused him to behave and live as he did, etc. isn't really filled in (the particulars are, but not the underlying causes), but instead Louise captured my attention most. She is the middle of the Satie children, the only girl, who, like her siblings, has lost her mother, and her father has disappeared, and she is taken in and raised by a great uncle and aunt who lost their own daughter just before her wedding day. Being with Louise, as a child, a young woman in a quiet, perhaps loveless house, and then into her own marriage, tragedy following her, and then as an old woman in Buenos Aires helping refugees and giving piano lessons, was an intriguing and compelling character. Clearly much research has gone into this book, and the author's love of Satie's music is set forth in an end note. It wasn't a book in which I was fully absorbed, but parts of it really immersed me, and I certainly learned a lot.
July 21, 2019
Book 4 finished for July 24in48.
This is a very intimate novel about the life of Erik Satie and his sister, brother, and two friends who new him well. The writing is beautiful, particularly in those chapters from Satie’s perspective talking about “touch” or music, and Horrocks described the Montmartre Satie inhabited so well. The chapters from his sister Louise’s perspective are interesting; they are the only ones told in 1st person - I think I figured out why the author made that choice but I don’t quite think it was needed.
This is a very intimate novel about the life of Erik Satie and his sister, brother, and two friends who new him well. The writing is beautiful, particularly in those chapters from Satie’s perspective talking about “touch” or music, and Horrocks described the Montmartre Satie inhabited so well. The chapters from his sister Louise’s perspective are interesting; they are the only ones told in 1st person - I think I figured out why the author made that choice but I don’t quite think it was needed.
September 11, 2019
Full blown trip to turn of the century France, uncovering the life of Erik Satie. Historical fiction at it's finest, following a true path with the author's voice connecting the dots. Many piano students will remember having to play something by Satie back in the day. The title 'Vexations' is a loop piece which you play over and over in succession. An odd genius of sorts, who's at odds with being touched and never threw anything away. Friends with Claude DeBussy.
August 29, 2019
I had no idea what this book was about when I checked it out, just liked the cover, shortly in I started googling, ruining the story for me since I did so much research! It's amazing to me all that rests at our fingertips, information, photos, videos, sound, which of course enhances ones reading experience. Was an all a new subject for me with some beautifully written lines.
Read
September 3, 2021A beautiful, heart-wrenching, and enthralling fictionalization of the life of avant-garde composer Erik Satie, his family and friends during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth in France and Argentina. The kind of book that brings all the pleasures together--elegant, precise, original writing; intriguing characters; interesting time period and setting; compelling plot.
April 20, 2022
Fictional biography of Erik Satie and family and friends. Kept me engaged all through. I really like his music and was thrilled to find this book at the library!
October 4, 2019
I could almost hear Erik Satie's melancholy Gymnopédie playing throughout the sadness embedded in the world of the composer, particularly in the chapters from the point of view of his sister, sidelined mostly because of her gender. Louise's voice is the most powerful, complicated, plaintive, but Erik's life in bohemian Montmartre which included Claude Debussy, Jean Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Suzanne Valadan, and others was fascinating.
March 12, 2020
Horrocks has written an absorbing, immersive fictionalized narrative focused on the life of Erik Satie. I am not particularly a fan of Satie's music, and so didn't expect to care much about the novel. But I did. The novel shifts between the points of view of several characters, Erik, his friend Philippe, his brother Conrad, briefly, the painter Suzanne Valadon, and his sister Louise. Ostensibly, Louise, who outlives them all, albeit from a distance (she moves to Argentina in mid life), is the source of all the narrations. I have no idea what details are historical, what invented. But history--Erik's eventual fame--lends just enough foreknowledge to keep the reader turning pages. Hoccocks' prose is lyrical and suits the the project.
August 15, 2019
I loved it! Really interesting story, very well written. A wonderful piece of historical fiction!
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