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The End of the World News
The dying Freud hustled out of Vienna into exile
A Broadway musical on the subject of Trotsky in New York
The last throes of the planet Earth in AD 2000
These are all items on
The End of the World News
Psychoanalysis, international socialism and The End - three themes, three stories - outrageously counterpointed into trinity, in a novel stuffed with verbal pyrotechnics, amazing sleights of fantasy, and tantalizing jokes, and which is crowned by a brilliant, unexpected, out-of-this-world finale - all written by one novelist at the height of his powers.
A Broadway musical on the subject of Trotsky in New York
The last throes of the planet Earth in AD 2000
These are all items on
The End of the World News
Psychoanalysis, international socialism and The End - three themes, three stories - outrageously counterpointed into trinity, in a novel stuffed with verbal pyrotechnics, amazing sleights of fantasy, and tantalizing jokes, and which is crowned by a brilliant, unexpected, out-of-this-world finale - all written by one novelist at the height of his powers.
389 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
18 people are currently reading
1132 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Burgess
360 books4,251 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Seriocomic novels of noted British writer and critic Anthony Burgess, pen name of John Burgess Wilson, include the futuristic classic A Clockwork Orange (1962).
He composed also a librettos, poems, plays, screens, and essays and traveled, broadcast, translated, linguist and educationalist. He lived for long periods in southeastern Asia, the United States of America, and Europe along Mediterranean Sea as well as England. His fiction embraces the Malayan trilogy ( The Long Day Wanes ) on the dying days of empire in the east. The Enderby quartet concerns a poet and his muse. Nothing like the Sun re-creates love life of William Shakespeare. He explores the nature of evil with Earthly Powers , a panoramic saga of the 20th century. He published studies of James Joyce, Ernest Miller Hemingway, Shakespeare, and David Herbert Lawrence. He produced the treatises Language Made Plain and A Mouthful of Air . His journalism proliferated in several languages. He translated and adapted Cyrano de Bergerac , Oedipus the King , and Carmen for the stage. He scripted Jesus of Nazareth and Moses the Lawgiver for the screen. He invented the prehistoric language, spoken in Quest for Fire . He composed the Sinfoni Melayu , the Symphony (No. 3) in C , and the opera Blooms of Dublin .
Seriocomic novels of noted British writer and critic Anthony Burgess, pen name of John Burgess Wilson, include the futuristic classic A Clockwork Orange (1962).
He composed also a librettos, poems, plays, screens, and essays and traveled, broadcast, translated, linguist and educationalist. He lived for long periods in southeastern Asia, the United States of America, and Europe along Mediterranean Sea as well as England. His fiction embraces the Malayan trilogy ( The Long Day Wanes ) on the dying days of empire in the east. The Enderby quartet concerns a poet and his muse. Nothing like the Sun re-creates love life of William Shakespeare. He explores the nature of evil with Earthly Powers , a panoramic saga of the 20th century. He published studies of James Joyce, Ernest Miller Hemingway, Shakespeare, and David Herbert Lawrence. He produced the treatises Language Made Plain and A Mouthful of Air . His journalism proliferated in several languages. He translated and adapted Cyrano de Bergerac , Oedipus the King , and Carmen for the stage. He scripted Jesus of Nazareth and Moses the Lawgiver for the screen. He invented the prehistoric language, spoken in Quest for Fire . He composed the Sinfoni Melayu , the Symphony (No. 3) in C , and the opera Blooms of Dublin .
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
April 26, 2020
With the exception of A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess has become supremely unfashionable nowadays. Dipping into this felt like sampling not just a different book, but a whole different mindset, a different world – one where writers like this existed and books like this were published and, presumably, read. Which is not to say that it's especially good or bad, just that it now feels so totally déclassé, and the fact that it has been long out of print seems, while sad, wholly understandable.
This ‘novel’ is a sort of braid of three apparently unrelated entities: a historical novella about the life of Sigmund Freud, a Broadway libretto about Trotsky's 1917 visit to New York, and a pulp sci-fi tale about the earth being destroyed by a rogue asteroid, Lynx. The description alone is enough to make a case for its ambition, at least.
All three strands are, in their own ways, about the end of the world. Inevitably, some bits are weaker than others. The Trotsky libretto seems less fleshed-out than the other two, although the songs are quite fun.
The sci-fi story is offered up as a sort of parody of schlocky armageddon paperbacks, but there's nothing really parodic about it – it's just like reading a rubbishy sci-fi novel, whose predictions of the future have not aged especially well. The strongest part of the book is the Freud story, which is told in a lovely flexible, episodic prose style, switching every few paragraphs to a new scene or dialogue and illustrating his story in a series of stroboscopic incidents. It's told with panache and is, in the end, quite moving.
Burgess is, I think, a writer driven not by plot or character but by words and sentences, and by paying attention to the themes that emerge when many of these are put together. This can have spectacular results; it can also means his plots feel frustratingly perfunctory, although at least, even in the worst sections of his novels, his sentences are always written with a degree of élan that keeps you (me, at least) coming back. Wordplay, and an awareness of words' possibilities, are everywhere in this book – not least in the title, which he explains in a semi-fictional Foreword:
Like a lot of his books, I finished it thinking it wasn't that great, but also happy that it existed and wishing there were still authors around who wrote like this.
This ‘novel’ is a sort of braid of three apparently unrelated entities: a historical novella about the life of Sigmund Freud, a Broadway libretto about Trotsky's 1917 visit to New York, and a pulp sci-fi tale about the earth being destroyed by a rogue asteroid, Lynx. The description alone is enough to make a case for its ambition, at least.
All three strands are, in their own ways, about the end of the world. Inevitably, some bits are weaker than others. The Trotsky libretto seems less fleshed-out than the other two, although the songs are quite fun.
All through history
Mind limps after reality.
And what is reality? What's damned well there.
There's no mystery
In physical causality.
Life is simple. Desperately so. Beware
Of making it complex.
Sex, for instance, sex.
The need to breed, cell calling to cell.
Any set of cells will do as well
As any other set. And yet
This word love, lyubof, Liebe, amore
Sticks its ugly snout into the story.
All through history
Mind limps after reality.
And what is mind? A burst of electric sparks
Out of the clashing consistory
Of physical actuality.
Love's in the mind, but it isn't in Karl Marx.
Love's in William S.,
In Tolstoy, more or less,
And certainly in Dante Alighieri.
Pushkin? Lyubof flows like cream in a dairy.
Those poets aren't to blame. They came
Too soon to recognize their own confusion.
Love, we all know now, is a bourgeois illusion.
The sci-fi story is offered up as a sort of parody of schlocky armageddon paperbacks, but there's nothing really parodic about it – it's just like reading a rubbishy sci-fi novel, whose predictions of the future have not aged especially well. The strongest part of the book is the Freud story, which is told in a lovely flexible, episodic prose style, switching every few paragraphs to a new scene or dialogue and illustrating his story in a series of stroboscopic incidents. It's told with panache and is, in the end, quite moving.
Burgess is, I think, a writer driven not by plot or character but by words and sentences, and by paying attention to the themes that emerge when many of these are put together. This can have spectacular results; it can also means his plots feel frustratingly perfunctory, although at least, even in the worst sections of his novels, his sentences are always written with a degree of élan that keeps you (me, at least) coming back. Wordplay, and an awareness of words' possibilities, are everywhere in this book – not least in the title, which he explains in a semi-fictional Foreword:
I suffer from insomnia and spend long mosquito-haunted Mediterranean nights listening to the Overseas Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Every hour, on the hour, I hear the bulletin of actualities, which sometimes finishes with the formula: ‘That is the end of the World News.’
Like a lot of his books, I finished it thinking it wasn't that great, but also happy that it existed and wishing there were still authors around who wrote like this.
May 7, 2019
What is in common between Leon Trotsky, Sigmund Freud and the end of the world?
Leon Trotsky stands for the end of capitalism and the beginning of the brave new world…
Sigmund Freud symbolizes the end of the age of sexual innocence and the psychological mystery of reproduction…
And the end of the world means a physical end of the planet Earth, class warfare and all the biological reproduction on it.
Don’t be blue, rejoice and join the glorious chorus…
Leon Trotsky stands for the end of capitalism and the beginning of the brave new world…
Sigmund Freud symbolizes the end of the age of sexual innocence and the psychological mystery of reproduction…
And the end of the world means a physical end of the planet Earth, class warfare and all the biological reproduction on it.
‘Lynx in the heavens greets Christ the tiger.’ And then the choir of the Mormon Tabernacle of Salt Lake City was singing an old American carol: ‘Star of wonder, star of light, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us with thy perfect light.’
Don’t be blue, rejoice and join the glorious chorus…
sampled
June 29, 2022Three works stitched together. As usual with Burgess, the prose is intermittently crackling and wowish, then the calculation is made “can I stomach 370 more pages of this?” As usual with Burgess, the answer is no.
August 20, 2010
I read this years ago but have always remembered this poem from it:
"I loved you. And love for you has not yet burned out of my soul. But
don't let my love cause you distress any more. I don't wish to bring you
grief. I loved you silently, hopelessly, sometimes in joy, sometimes in
jealousy. I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly. Ah, may God grant that
you be so loved by another."
Just beautiful.
"I loved you. And love for you has not yet burned out of my soul. But
don't let my love cause you distress any more. I don't wish to bring you
grief. I loved you silently, hopelessly, sometimes in joy, sometimes in
jealousy. I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly. Ah, may God grant that
you be so loved by another."
Just beautiful.
August 17, 2017
tre storie: un asteroide sta per distruggere la terra, la vita di sigmund froid e..ehm...un musical sulle vicende di trotsky a new york.
tre storie diverse e più o meno distanti nel tempo che si uniscono nel finale, e nel frattempo parlano del mondo tra le due guerre mondiali e di quello di adesso, di potere che da alla testa e di nascita della psicoanalisi, di socialismo a new york e di avventure picaresche in un'america del dopo-disastro e in attesa della fine del mondo.
burgess scriveva in maniera perfetta, aveva fantasia da vendere e grande cultura (seguite le note varie, come mostrino che nessun particolare storico è lasciato al caso) e -ancora una volta- piange il cuore a sapere che in italiano tutto tranne "arancia meccanica" è fuori catalogo...
tre storie diverse e più o meno distanti nel tempo che si uniscono nel finale, e nel frattempo parlano del mondo tra le due guerre mondiali e di quello di adesso, di potere che da alla testa e di nascita della psicoanalisi, di socialismo a new york e di avventure picaresche in un'america del dopo-disastro e in attesa della fine del mondo.
burgess scriveva in maniera perfetta, aveva fantasia da vendere e grande cultura (seguite le note varie, come mostrino che nessun particolare storico è lasciato al caso) e -ancora una volta- piange il cuore a sapere che in italiano tutto tranne "arancia meccanica" è fuori catalogo...
September 19, 2020
The End of the World News is three stories by Anthony Burgess, but with an unusual twist. The three stories do not run consecutively but are blended together in one narrative, so that each story advances a little way before switching to the next one.
Why employ such a cumbersome method? It allows Burgess to defer the ending of each story, allowing for some suspense, although two of the stories do not have any real ending to speak of. It gives Burgess a more free-form approach in which he is not required to observe linear storytelling since he can return to a previous story at any given point. It allows us to look for parallels in the stories.
On the surface the stories are entirely disparate. They take place with characters who never meet, and who are separated by being in different time zones. Two of them deal with historical figures. The other is set in future.
One of the stories is about the life of Sigmund Freud. This is particularly freeform, and goes from the end of Freud’s life to earlier points without warning. There is no separating space between paragraphs or bridging sentences. The reader must stay alert. This gives the story a Freudian feel, as if it is Freud dreaming at the point of death, or engaging in free association of his thoughts.
There is no particular storyline, but we get a sense of Freud’s role in the world. Burgess is broadly sympathetic to Freud. He does include many challenges to Freud’s thinking, but he portrays a fragile Freud who is constantly self-searching and self-critical, a man who is aware of his failings and the opposing views of him.
I am reminded of how remarkable an achievement Freud’s psychoanalysis was. In an age of neurotic illness, Freud was one of the first people to introduce a working therapy. He may have relied over-much on sex as an explanation, but this was an age of sexual repression, and Freud realised just how important sexual guilt and shame was in holding people back.
Freud was also correct to realise that tensions within the family were the beginning point for many complexes, whether or not we believe in his theories of the Oedipus complex.
I am not entirely sure that Freud was the great sexual liberal Burgess makes him out to be. Were his views on homosexuality really so enlightened? It is amusing to see Freud discussing sexual matters with his scandalised wife in front of his young children though.
Burgess’s Freud is a man who spends his life constantly beleaguered. He lived in an age of anti-semitism, and this affects him on a political level, and in his career. When he first outlines his theories, many people are disgusted with his pornographic interest in sex, and his account of forbidden desires. One man attacks Freud for trying to turn his wife into a whore.
Later on Freud forms his body of disciples, but they each turn against him. Curiously they do so in a way that Freud ought to have anticipated. The father of psychoanalysis rears the children of the movement, and they seek to kill the father. Each of them betrays his ideas and offers their own take on it. Some of them are unpleasant, and the most confident of them Carl Jung, ends up supporting Nazism.
The second story deals with Leon Trotsky just before the Russian Revolution. He is in New York writing about Communism, and dallying with women. This story bizarrely takes the form of a musical. I suspect Burgess uses this format to undermine Trotsky by reducing him to a comic figure.
A political conservative, Burgess had no time for socialism, and he does not afford the same respect to Trotsky that he does to Freud. Trotsky is here seen as self-satisfied and lacking in feeling, again concerned by opposition to his views, but without Freud’s capacity for self-analysis.
There is a telling passage where Trotsky discusses thesis and antithesis. This is Marx’s idea that two opposing ideas will clash until they find synthesis, which will be socialist revolution. A young and disenchanted revolutionary Olga suggests instead that the constant battle of thesis and antithesis will continue. Once the revolutionaries have removed the Tsarist government they oppose, they will fight among themselves. As we know, this is what happened.
The third story is about the end of the world. A comet called Lynx is heading for collision with Earth. On its first near-brush it causes catastrophe, and takes away our moon, but most people think the problem is over.
However scientists know better. It is due to return soon and destroy everything. A space ship is being built for the world’s scientists, but the visionary responsible, Professor Frame, makes the mistake of appointing a Fascistic leader, Bartlett to oversee things. Bartlett is willing to execute or pacify anyone who wishes to leave the operation, and it heads for disaster.
Further complications are caused by a number of other characters including Valentine, the husband of Frame’s daughter, Vanessa. Valentine is a philandering sci-fi writer and teacher who sleeps with his own students and gives them higher grades. He is also the most sympathetic character in the book, or at least Burgess keeps pushing him as being so. Is this a portrait of Burgess himself, I wonder?
Other characters begin to converge, including a religious leader, a left-wing troublemaker (another one) and a parody of the mother-and-child. Burgess was a lapsed Catholic, and he cannot refrain from returning to religious concerns in his works. However he is strictly irreverent, as we see earlier in the book where there is a distinctly offensive nativity play being shown.
Faith and religion then is not the thread that ties the stories together, but what is? There are linking themes and motifs. Each story deals with some kind of end of the world. All the characters see portents of the end of the world. In the case of Freud and Trotsky they are false. In the final story they may be real.
Where does the irony lie? Are Freud and Trotsky foolish in believing they are bringing in a new revolution (sexual or political) that will end the existing world, and lead to a better one, when we know their ideas will lose ground, and the world will end anyway? Or is the last story ironic, and is this another false alarm? I’d better not reveal which.
The most obvious connection though is that each story deals with a man of visionary ideals – Freud, Trostky and Frame. However they seem to overlook something elemental in their thoughts, which leads them towards a flawed conclusion.
If I was to be romantic, I would call it love. If I am to be prosaic, I will call it the human factor. Freud focuses on sex, but overlooks the role of love or other human impulses. Trotsky despises love, and cares only for sex.
Frame develops a project where people are expected to renounce their romantic ties to the world, divorce partners and leave as single people. However one cannot force love. Valentine (notice the name) might not be a particularly estimable character, but Vanessa loves him anyway, and does not wish to be separated from him. Bartlett’s attempts to quench opposition from lovers only results in his downfall, and his credibility is undermined when the members of the planned expedition burst into laughter at his plans to pair them off scientifically.
This is a sprawling book that may test the reader’s patience. It requires attention, and probably some understanding of Freudian psychology and Marxism. Nonetheless it is an audacious and humorous merging of ideas, and a great esoteric work if you have the stomach for it.
Why employ such a cumbersome method? It allows Burgess to defer the ending of each story, allowing for some suspense, although two of the stories do not have any real ending to speak of. It gives Burgess a more free-form approach in which he is not required to observe linear storytelling since he can return to a previous story at any given point. It allows us to look for parallels in the stories.
On the surface the stories are entirely disparate. They take place with characters who never meet, and who are separated by being in different time zones. Two of them deal with historical figures. The other is set in future.
One of the stories is about the life of Sigmund Freud. This is particularly freeform, and goes from the end of Freud’s life to earlier points without warning. There is no separating space between paragraphs or bridging sentences. The reader must stay alert. This gives the story a Freudian feel, as if it is Freud dreaming at the point of death, or engaging in free association of his thoughts.
There is no particular storyline, but we get a sense of Freud’s role in the world. Burgess is broadly sympathetic to Freud. He does include many challenges to Freud’s thinking, but he portrays a fragile Freud who is constantly self-searching and self-critical, a man who is aware of his failings and the opposing views of him.
I am reminded of how remarkable an achievement Freud’s psychoanalysis was. In an age of neurotic illness, Freud was one of the first people to introduce a working therapy. He may have relied over-much on sex as an explanation, but this was an age of sexual repression, and Freud realised just how important sexual guilt and shame was in holding people back.
Freud was also correct to realise that tensions within the family were the beginning point for many complexes, whether or not we believe in his theories of the Oedipus complex.
I am not entirely sure that Freud was the great sexual liberal Burgess makes him out to be. Were his views on homosexuality really so enlightened? It is amusing to see Freud discussing sexual matters with his scandalised wife in front of his young children though.
Burgess’s Freud is a man who spends his life constantly beleaguered. He lived in an age of anti-semitism, and this affects him on a political level, and in his career. When he first outlines his theories, many people are disgusted with his pornographic interest in sex, and his account of forbidden desires. One man attacks Freud for trying to turn his wife into a whore.
Later on Freud forms his body of disciples, but they each turn against him. Curiously they do so in a way that Freud ought to have anticipated. The father of psychoanalysis rears the children of the movement, and they seek to kill the father. Each of them betrays his ideas and offers their own take on it. Some of them are unpleasant, and the most confident of them Carl Jung, ends up supporting Nazism.
The second story deals with Leon Trotsky just before the Russian Revolution. He is in New York writing about Communism, and dallying with women. This story bizarrely takes the form of a musical. I suspect Burgess uses this format to undermine Trotsky by reducing him to a comic figure.
A political conservative, Burgess had no time for socialism, and he does not afford the same respect to Trotsky that he does to Freud. Trotsky is here seen as self-satisfied and lacking in feeling, again concerned by opposition to his views, but without Freud’s capacity for self-analysis.
There is a telling passage where Trotsky discusses thesis and antithesis. This is Marx’s idea that two opposing ideas will clash until they find synthesis, which will be socialist revolution. A young and disenchanted revolutionary Olga suggests instead that the constant battle of thesis and antithesis will continue. Once the revolutionaries have removed the Tsarist government they oppose, they will fight among themselves. As we know, this is what happened.
The third story is about the end of the world. A comet called Lynx is heading for collision with Earth. On its first near-brush it causes catastrophe, and takes away our moon, but most people think the problem is over.
However scientists know better. It is due to return soon and destroy everything. A space ship is being built for the world’s scientists, but the visionary responsible, Professor Frame, makes the mistake of appointing a Fascistic leader, Bartlett to oversee things. Bartlett is willing to execute or pacify anyone who wishes to leave the operation, and it heads for disaster.
Further complications are caused by a number of other characters including Valentine, the husband of Frame’s daughter, Vanessa. Valentine is a philandering sci-fi writer and teacher who sleeps with his own students and gives them higher grades. He is also the most sympathetic character in the book, or at least Burgess keeps pushing him as being so. Is this a portrait of Burgess himself, I wonder?
Other characters begin to converge, including a religious leader, a left-wing troublemaker (another one) and a parody of the mother-and-child. Burgess was a lapsed Catholic, and he cannot refrain from returning to religious concerns in his works. However he is strictly irreverent, as we see earlier in the book where there is a distinctly offensive nativity play being shown.
Faith and religion then is not the thread that ties the stories together, but what is? There are linking themes and motifs. Each story deals with some kind of end of the world. All the characters see portents of the end of the world. In the case of Freud and Trotsky they are false. In the final story they may be real.
Where does the irony lie? Are Freud and Trotsky foolish in believing they are bringing in a new revolution (sexual or political) that will end the existing world, and lead to a better one, when we know their ideas will lose ground, and the world will end anyway? Or is the last story ironic, and is this another false alarm? I’d better not reveal which.
The most obvious connection though is that each story deals with a man of visionary ideals – Freud, Trostky and Frame. However they seem to overlook something elemental in their thoughts, which leads them towards a flawed conclusion.
If I was to be romantic, I would call it love. If I am to be prosaic, I will call it the human factor. Freud focuses on sex, but overlooks the role of love or other human impulses. Trotsky despises love, and cares only for sex.
Frame develops a project where people are expected to renounce their romantic ties to the world, divorce partners and leave as single people. However one cannot force love. Valentine (notice the name) might not be a particularly estimable character, but Vanessa loves him anyway, and does not wish to be separated from him. Bartlett’s attempts to quench opposition from lovers only results in his downfall, and his credibility is undermined when the members of the planned expedition burst into laughter at his plans to pair them off scientifically.
This is a sprawling book that may test the reader’s patience. It requires attention, and probably some understanding of Freudian psychology and Marxism. Nonetheless it is an audacious and humorous merging of ideas, and a great esoteric work if you have the stomach for it.
February 13, 2013
I'm an Anthony Burgess fan. He really was one of the most inventive writers around. For some reason, which I do not know, he has been somewhat neglected (he will never be completely neglected though because of A Clockwork Orange). But, his novels are some of the most original pieces of prose written in the 20th century. He never wrote the same book twice and loved playing with prose.
This book is one of his more interesting experiments and also one of his most frustration in terms of success. There are three storylines, one involving Freud, a second involving Trotsky and a third about a future where the world is ending and the smartest people are deciding who should go in a spaceship to continue the human race. There are no chapter breaks so the the three storylines start and stop without pause. This is supposed to resemble the channel flipping on the TV. The gimmick never works.
The Freud storyline is fantastic and would have made a great novel on its own much like Burgess' Napolean Symphony. The sci-fi storyline is pretty good and would have made a good short paperback novel. The Trotsky storyline fucking blows! It's written as a libretto and is boring as shit.
So, a third of it is brilliant. A third of it is entertaining. The last third sucks shit.
This book is one of his more interesting experiments and also one of his most frustration in terms of success. There are three storylines, one involving Freud, a second involving Trotsky and a third about a future where the world is ending and the smartest people are deciding who should go in a spaceship to continue the human race. There are no chapter breaks so the the three storylines start and stop without pause. This is supposed to resemble the channel flipping on the TV. The gimmick never works.
The Freud storyline is fantastic and would have made a great novel on its own much like Burgess' Napolean Symphony. The sci-fi storyline is pretty good and would have made a good short paperback novel. The Trotsky storyline fucking blows! It's written as a libretto and is boring as shit.
So, a third of it is brilliant. A third of it is entertaining. The last third sucks shit.
Read
January 26, 2018Page 205 ends a paragraph with "The waiter lead them to" just ending like that, not even a period. But it's in the Freudian portion, where the narrative is in a temporal flux
Page 362 spelt lessons lesons. Page 373 spelt ground gound
Like how in the sci fi narrative it goes into concurrent plots, just to add some more to the mix. A real mazurka
Trotsky plot was the least interesting, but fortunately it was also the most minor of the trio, & it's content being mostly description & dialogue made it a nice break from the heavier prose
At some point there's two people shouting at each other over a third speaker, ignored. But in the prose it's difficult to really convey their being ignored, the prose having to break from the argument while it brings in the ignored bit. To break out of the serialization requires reading the prose, & then sitting back & playing it back simultaneously. Burgess even takes a stab at having a trialogue occur in three columns. I tried reading it row by row, but ended up reading mostly a column at a time
Page 362 spelt lessons lesons. Page 373 spelt ground gound
Like how in the sci fi narrative it goes into concurrent plots, just to add some more to the mix. A real mazurka
Trotsky plot was the least interesting, but fortunately it was also the most minor of the trio, & it's content being mostly description & dialogue made it a nice break from the heavier prose
At some point there's two people shouting at each other over a third speaker, ignored. But in the prose it's difficult to really convey their being ignored, the prose having to break from the argument while it brings in the ignored bit. To break out of the serialization requires reading the prose, & then sitting back & playing it back simultaneously. Burgess even takes a stab at having a trialogue occur in three columns. I tried reading it row by row, but ended up reading mostly a column at a time
June 14, 2018
لا يبدو على الكاتب الإنكليزي جون لوكاريه أنه سوف يخلد يوماً إلى الصمت ويتوقف عن إصدار الكتب في شكل شبه منتظم. فالمبدع الكبير لروايات التجسس وروايات الحرب الباردة والذي تختلط لديه الأبعاد النفسية لشخصياته مع الأحداث الكبرى مع العلاقات الشخصية التي تكاد تنتمي الى نوع شديد الإنكليزية والخصوصية من الحكايات العائلية، لا يميل الى التقاعد، حتى وإن كانت حركته قد تباطأت وهو يدور من حول تسعينياته، وحتى ولو أن الحرب الباردة لم تعد كما عهدها. وحتى أخيراً ولو أن «جواسيسه الكبار» إما تجاوزوا سن التقاعد أو ماتوا أو اختفوا دون أن يقول لنا أين. جون لوكاريه واسمه الحقيقي دافيد كرومويل، نبع من الحكايات لا ينضب ونعرف أنه غالبا ما يستقي موضوعاته وشخصياته من تجاربه الشخصية أو من تجارب رفاق له- جواسيس وعملاء يشتغلون مع الاستخبارات البريطانية-، ولعل هذا أجمل ما في مساره المهني، الكتابي والاستخباراتي. وهو بالمناسبة ما يغطيه كتابان لهما علاقة مباشرة به أحدهما سيرته كما كتبها آدم سيسمان وروايته التي تبدو حتى الآن من أكثر رواياته ذاتية
January 6, 2025
Loved loved loved. This book is dark, mesmerizing, and hilarious. Highly recommended
June 16, 2025
The End of The World News by Anthony Burgess, the author of the magnum opus A Clockwork Orange, adapted for the big screen by glorious Stanley Kubrick and made into another chef d’oeuvre, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... where I have a few thousand reviews
7 out of 10
The End of The World News sounds like a magnificent book, and perhaps it is, after all, this is on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, where Anthony Burgess has the aforementioned A Clockwork Orange and Earthly Powers https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/10/...
If A Clockwork Orange was such a delight, enchanting masterpiece, I must say that I was not overwhelmed by the other two, first The Earthly Powers was not up to my high, if irrelevant standard, and now The End of World News started fine, and I thought the what, four hundred and seventy pages will be a delight…
But I was wrong and had to abandon the novel, and confess my patience was tested, I am not resilient, I would fail the delayed gratification trial – this was used for children, told they could have a piece of pie immediately, or they could wait some minutes and then get two, those who were patient, would have success later in life
Nevertheless, we could also argue that maybe there are no two pies at the end of the tunnel aka the long read, and maybe I was doing the right thing, according to Schopenhauer ‘One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.’
Which is not to say that The End of The World News is bad per se, for you, anybody else, it just does not work for me, and then we have Seneca https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... to listen to, and his fabulous interpretation of time, he stated that we have enough time, life is not short!
Except that we need to pay attention, carpe diem and all that, we treat time as if it were an inexhaustible commodity, we ‘kill time’, sped the most precious possession we have as if we had an infinity of it, which in a way, a Buddhist way, we have, I mean the Hindus say ‘time does not exist’, and then we could move along to…
Einstein, and if we think of the theory of relativity, then we only need a space ship form the loathsome Elon Musk – I mean, right, he has some science in his brain, but what about supporting Orange Jesus, the ultimate vampire? - and then fly away with the speed of light and time has another dimension and we live a few days…
With those we live behind dying, and then some generations after that, just in that ‘interval of two hours’, so it does encourage one to think, well, time travel is possible, and I have read that Einstein said as much, although we need to check such things, my memory is not what it used to be, and then you read all sorts of crap these days
I think I have read in the magnificent, hilarious The Belles Letters Papers https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/05/... about Anthony Burgess being very good when writing about the excellent books, but too lame, lenient when taking on the bad ones
It could be that it was not there, but I am sure this is somewhere about Burgess – the start of The End of The World News is promising, but then very soon it just flattens out for yours truly, though it made for such an interesting coincidence, I have seen Freud’s Last Session https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and enjoyed quite a lot
There were aspects that we find at the start of The End of The World News, concerning Freud, the Nazi abuses, the Gestapo comes to the house, they harass the family, because they are ‘Jewish filth’, they even take the daughter, Anna Freud, with them, and this is where the two narratives differ, one has a version
The other, The End of World News, which is of concern for now (right?) proposes a version where the imperious, proud, sophisticated daughter is towering over the goons, she is made to wait and then she even hears a joke, form another poor Jewish man, brought to be tortured, perhaps, and then likely sent to the death camps
So, he talks about two Jewish men, waiting for execution, and the Nazi brute asks one is he has a last wish, I forgot the name, maybe it was Jospeh, who says he wants a cigarette, the other man, when asked, just spits in the eye of the killer, and Jospeh is lamenting, David, why did you do that, what now…Or something like that
There is also the bicycle joke, I heard it from my friend, Marius Jaeger, who told me that ‘the evil in the world is because of the Jews and bicycle riders’, and one is supposed to answer why the bicycle riders, when one is antisemitic, and in the book, they have Hitler involved along these lines, he is asking why the riders
It is no laughing matter, they have done the holocaust, and though Freud escaped, could eventually take his family to Britain, it was not the whole family, and he was forced into humiliation, insulted, abused, eventually, this ghastly figure comes with a document, stating that everything was perfect for Sigmund Freud, and he has to sign it, if he wants to be allowed, with the family, out of Austria, and he adds ‘I recommend the Gestapo wholeheartedly’, contrary to what he had been told, that he could not add anything on the official paper
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
November 25, 2016
Ah, John. What to say about this strange patchwork novel? I wish I could grant the premise: three stories, all about endings, woven together to create a kind of channel surfing experience.
But, honestly, it felt more like Mr. Wilson - one of my all-time favorite novelists, who wrote under the pseudonym Anthony Burgess - simply had three novellas in hand at a time when novellas were rather difficult to get on the shelf.
All of the stuff that we read an Anthony Burgess novel for - the delight in language, the exquisite attention to detail, the obsessive need to make sense of the bloody 20th Century - can be found here. He gives us the life of Sigmund Freud, Trotsky's brief exile to New York, and a near future science-fiction cataclysm reminiscent of When Worlds Collide.
Of the three story arcs, Trotsky's is the weakest. He styles it as the libretto of an off-Broadway musical. What was at the time envisioned as the end of history, the end of the class struggle, could have been made into meatier fare. Instead, it comes across as rather flip.
The future Earth imperiled by the approach of a rogue planet is a supremely well-written entertainment. His descriptions of bands of survivors fleeing for high ground in the skyscrapers of Manhattan as storms of Biblical proportion drown the city make for powerful, visceral scenes that continue to sound long after in this reader's imagination.
The story of Sigmund Freud, which marked the end of Mankind seeing his inner self - be it the unconscious or the soul - as an unfathomable mystery, is where Mr. Burgess's strength as a writer shines most brilliantly. Freud's views made him an outcast in the medical community long before the rise of the Third Reich cast him out of Vienna. There's much to be dealt with here: the pain of isolation, the pain of a failing body, and the torment of cancer. The reduction of a polished speaking voice into a slurred mush following botched surgery and a prosthesis that poorly fit his palate. Burgess hammers home the struggle against oppression and censorship, the petty indignities and humiliations, and the constant push-and-pull against enemies and adherents alike with every keystroke.
The final lines of Freud's story in the book are perfect, a kind of whispered magic spell that brings life full circle at its close.
Definitely recommended for Burgess aficionados. For those just discovering his work, I'd suggest beginning with Earthly Powers, Inside Mr. Enderby, or Any Old Iron. Tackle A Clockwork Orange, Napoleon Symphony, and Byrne once you get a taste for his style. And then have a go at the rest.
But, honestly, it felt more like Mr. Wilson - one of my all-time favorite novelists, who wrote under the pseudonym Anthony Burgess - simply had three novellas in hand at a time when novellas were rather difficult to get on the shelf.
All of the stuff that we read an Anthony Burgess novel for - the delight in language, the exquisite attention to detail, the obsessive need to make sense of the bloody 20th Century - can be found here. He gives us the life of Sigmund Freud, Trotsky's brief exile to New York, and a near future science-fiction cataclysm reminiscent of When Worlds Collide.
Of the three story arcs, Trotsky's is the weakest. He styles it as the libretto of an off-Broadway musical. What was at the time envisioned as the end of history, the end of the class struggle, could have been made into meatier fare. Instead, it comes across as rather flip.
The future Earth imperiled by the approach of a rogue planet is a supremely well-written entertainment. His descriptions of bands of survivors fleeing for high ground in the skyscrapers of Manhattan as storms of Biblical proportion drown the city make for powerful, visceral scenes that continue to sound long after in this reader's imagination.
The story of Sigmund Freud, which marked the end of Mankind seeing his inner self - be it the unconscious or the soul - as an unfathomable mystery, is where Mr. Burgess's strength as a writer shines most brilliantly. Freud's views made him an outcast in the medical community long before the rise of the Third Reich cast him out of Vienna. There's much to be dealt with here: the pain of isolation, the pain of a failing body, and the torment of cancer. The reduction of a polished speaking voice into a slurred mush following botched surgery and a prosthesis that poorly fit his palate. Burgess hammers home the struggle against oppression and censorship, the petty indignities and humiliations, and the constant push-and-pull against enemies and adherents alike with every keystroke.
The final lines of Freud's story in the book are perfect, a kind of whispered magic spell that brings life full circle at its close.
Definitely recommended for Burgess aficionados. For those just discovering his work, I'd suggest beginning with Earthly Powers, Inside Mr. Enderby, or Any Old Iron. Tackle A Clockwork Orange, Napoleon Symphony, and Byrne once you get a taste for his style. And then have a go at the rest.
October 19, 2019
This may not be Burgess's most well-known novel, but it is, to my mind one of his most entertaining. It is his take on the apocalyptic novel and is not only thought-provoking but also entertaining. It is puzzling why this novel is still out of print. Unfortunately, Burgess is not as widely read as he was in the '70s and 80s. It is only A clockwork Orange that is still widely read today, a novel that he personally hated.
dnf
March 7, 2025First time I’ve walked away from a Burgess. Partly I’ve had enough of his highly wrought style, partly I’m not up to the unpleasantness of the stories. In short, I wasn’t entertained and didn’t see there was anything to learn.
September 12, 2021
Interesting, but a bit boring
November 6, 2018
El libro en realidad son tres historias bastante distintas, con sus gracias y problemas. La narrativa cambia bruscamente de una historia a otra, a menudo sin ningún aviso, forzando al lector a tener que acoplarse al cambio. Como son tres historias disímiles, alguna de ellas puede no ser del gusto del lector, pero al no haber capítulos ni pistas de dónde empieza y termina tal y cual parte, no es posible sólo saltarse las partes que uno no quiere.
Una historia es sobre la vida de Sigmund Freud, desde que empieza a descubrir todo su rollo de las madres y los padres hasta poco antes de su muerte, exiliado en Londres. Está narrado en un formato similar a una telenovela o una serial, a base de muchas escenas breves que muestran pequeñas viñetas de su vida en lugar de una narrativa fluida.
La segunda historia, sin duda la más débil, trata sobre Trotsky en su breve estancia en Nueva York. Es lejos la historia más pobre; la única gracia que tiene es que está escrita como el libreto de un musical, de modo que los personajes en ocasiones se ponen a cantar. También es la historia más corta, en gran parte porque ocupa un marco de tiempo mucho menor. Como resultado de eso, funciona menos como una historia y más como elemento intersticial entre las otras dos historias.
La tercera historia, por la que presuntamente está nombrado el libro, es ciencia ficción en la que la tierra está a punto de ser visitada por el paso de un planeta errante, Lince, que creará todo un caos durante su paso cerca de la tierra debido a los efectos de su gravedad. Lo que la mayoría de la gente no sabe, porque no se dedican a trazar trayectorias orbitales, es que después de darle la vuelta al sol, la trayectoria de Lince se cruzará con la de la Tierra. Es una historia interesante, más aún considerando que el autor no se caracteriza por escribir ciencia ficción. Esta historia tiene un epílogo al final del libro que, francamente, es muy deprimente (aunque con esa premisa, es como imposible de evitar).
El principal problema del libro está en su forma de contar las historias; es distractor y más allá de un truco bonito, no aporta mucho. Burgess parece haberse divertido mucho escribiendo el libro, pero en algún punto olvidó algo clave: que el lector también tiene que entretenerse. Un fan de la ciencia ficción que no aprecie la ficción histórica puede encontrar un aburrimiento las tramas de Freud y Trotsky, mientra que alguien que prefiere leer sobre personas reales sin apreciar la ciencia ficción se preguntará cuando termina la historia del choque de mundos. Como se mencionó antes, no hay cómo hacerles el quite; uno no puede saltarse una historia para seguir con la que quiere porque no hay ningún indicio de cuándo ocurre eso.
Por el lado positivo, el humor Burgessiano sigue presente, con mucho juego de palabras e ingenio. También abunda la ironía, particularmente en las dos primeras historias.
Al final del día, es un libro bastante interesante, aunque algo fallido, pero es poco probable que uno lo tome para darle una segunda lectura.
Una historia es sobre la vida de Sigmund Freud, desde que empieza a descubrir todo su rollo de las madres y los padres hasta poco antes de su muerte, exiliado en Londres. Está narrado en un formato similar a una telenovela o una serial, a base de muchas escenas breves que muestran pequeñas viñetas de su vida en lugar de una narrativa fluida.
La segunda historia, sin duda la más débil, trata sobre Trotsky en su breve estancia en Nueva York. Es lejos la historia más pobre; la única gracia que tiene es que está escrita como el libreto de un musical, de modo que los personajes en ocasiones se ponen a cantar. También es la historia más corta, en gran parte porque ocupa un marco de tiempo mucho menor. Como resultado de eso, funciona menos como una historia y más como elemento intersticial entre las otras dos historias.
La tercera historia, por la que presuntamente está nombrado el libro, es ciencia ficción en la que la tierra está a punto de ser visitada por el paso de un planeta errante, Lince, que creará todo un caos durante su paso cerca de la tierra debido a los efectos de su gravedad. Lo que la mayoría de la gente no sabe, porque no se dedican a trazar trayectorias orbitales, es que después de darle la vuelta al sol, la trayectoria de Lince se cruzará con la de la Tierra. Es una historia interesante, más aún considerando que el autor no se caracteriza por escribir ciencia ficción. Esta historia tiene un epílogo al final del libro que, francamente, es muy deprimente (aunque con esa premisa, es como imposible de evitar).
El principal problema del libro está en su forma de contar las historias; es distractor y más allá de un truco bonito, no aporta mucho. Burgess parece haberse divertido mucho escribiendo el libro, pero en algún punto olvidó algo clave: que el lector también tiene que entretenerse. Un fan de la ciencia ficción que no aprecie la ficción histórica puede encontrar un aburrimiento las tramas de Freud y Trotsky, mientra que alguien que prefiere leer sobre personas reales sin apreciar la ciencia ficción se preguntará cuando termina la historia del choque de mundos. Como se mencionó antes, no hay cómo hacerles el quite; uno no puede saltarse una historia para seguir con la que quiere porque no hay ningún indicio de cuándo ocurre eso.
Por el lado positivo, el humor Burgessiano sigue presente, con mucho juego de palabras e ingenio. También abunda la ironía, particularmente en las dos primeras historias.
Al final del día, es un libro bastante interesante, aunque algo fallido, pero es poco probable que uno lo tome para darle una segunda lectura.
July 27, 2025
Some books are candy, some are medicine - and this one most surely is medicine: I read it because I believe it will somehow do me good.
It's a strange book, three interwoven narratives that only barely touch each other, and it's difficult to even see a thematic connection. Even the style is entirely different: one is a normal narrative, one is a jumble of time-disordered scenes, and one is a musical (!) complete with songs It doesn't help that this was posthumously published, meaning that we cannot be entirely sure that this is the final presentation that the author intended.
First, I understand absolutely nothing. I try to read with an open mind, inviting ideas of meaning, but it's just way too strange. Like, what would be the connection between Freud's jaw prosthesis and a neo-Christian rally in the year 2000?
But slowly, it dawns on me: All three texts are, in their own way, about ideas gone wrong. Or rather, about how ideas are never stronger than the people who try to execute on them. Whenever an idea passes from one person to another, it invariably changes. Or it can change within a person as well, get jumbled with other ideas, come out all different on the other side. Somehow, everything in this book goes wrong. Or maybe, goes right? For who is to say which form of the idea is the true, correct one?
A strange book, somehow intent on either being a classic or being forgotten. But for sure a book that invites some interesting thought.
It's a strange book, three interwoven narratives that only barely touch each other, and it's difficult to even see a thematic connection. Even the style is entirely different: one is a normal narrative, one is a jumble of time-disordered scenes, and one is a musical (!) complete with songs It doesn't help that this was posthumously published, meaning that we cannot be entirely sure that this is the final presentation that the author intended.
First, I understand absolutely nothing. I try to read with an open mind, inviting ideas of meaning, but it's just way too strange. Like, what would be the connection between Freud's jaw prosthesis and a neo-Christian rally in the year 2000?
But slowly, it dawns on me: All three texts are, in their own way, about ideas gone wrong. Or rather, about how ideas are never stronger than the people who try to execute on them. Whenever an idea passes from one person to another, it invariably changes. Or it can change within a person as well, get jumbled with other ideas, come out all different on the other side. Somehow, everything in this book goes wrong. Or maybe, goes right? For who is to say which form of the idea is the true, correct one?
A strange book, somehow intent on either being a classic or being forgotten. But for sure a book that invites some interesting thought.
January 3, 2024
"The rain beat on winter Vienna. A shrewd wind searched for cracks and found them." Yes, it's the pathetic fallacy but how originally and economically it creates a sinister atmosphere. On another page a woman is described as being "metallically smart." It's hard to think what that means but the rare combination of the two words is delightful, especially when it appears between more familiar collocations: "She was a mature beauty, under fifty, metallically smart, well-read in the Bible, not overintelligent."
There are three storylines in the novel: Freud's flight from Vienna, a Broadway musical about Trotsky's exile in New York, and the imminent destruction of Earth by a massive asteroid. Some of the action sequences in the latter storyline were hard to follow but I read on anyway. Why? Because there is something electric in Burgess's prose.
His craft is resourceful too; he uses a neat trick in the epilogue to make the three stories we've just read classroom instruction for a future generation of bored and skeptical adolescents. We're left with Burgess's reminder that it's in the nature of young people to be dismissive of the history their parents' generation thinks is important.
There are three storylines in the novel: Freud's flight from Vienna, a Broadway musical about Trotsky's exile in New York, and the imminent destruction of Earth by a massive asteroid. Some of the action sequences in the latter storyline were hard to follow but I read on anyway. Why? Because there is something electric in Burgess's prose.
His craft is resourceful too; he uses a neat trick in the epilogue to make the three stories we've just read classroom instruction for a future generation of bored and skeptical adolescents. We're left with Burgess's reminder that it's in the nature of young people to be dismissive of the history their parents' generation thinks is important.
March 23, 2018
My first Burgess in a very long time. And how I wanted to like the book. And the beginning was magnificent.
We are told the story of Sigmund Freud. But then there is also the story of Trotsky. And it is rather less exciting, in fact, I did not understand very much. People are singing all the time. (Although one of the songs about dancing I found great. How dancing is the only universal language.) And then there is a third tale, a science fiction story about people about to leave the dying Earth. And this was just boring.
And unfortunately, even the Freud story did not lead to anything. Well, maybe I just did not get the idea.
We are told the story of Sigmund Freud. But then there is also the story of Trotsky. And it is rather less exciting, in fact, I did not understand very much. People are singing all the time. (Although one of the songs about dancing I found great. How dancing is the only universal language.) And then there is a third tale, a science fiction story about people about to leave the dying Earth. And this was just boring.
And unfortunately, even the Freud story did not lead to anything. Well, maybe I just did not get the idea.
October 12, 2020
This was a hard one to rate. It frustrated and confused me. Stories often changed in the middle of a paragraph. There were no chapter breaks. Parts had a strong science fiction feel, a genre I have never enjoyed. But when I got to around the last 30 pages, it all started to come together, and the message was powerful! It is a definite reread!
June 2, 2020
Anthony Burgess is still one of my favourite writers and reading this book after thirty years surprises me for its actuality , wit and insight
November 29, 2023
What a wonderful book, a perfect mix of science fiction with enough reality in it to make it believable. Seems a bit disjointed at times but all comes together by the end.
January 31, 2025
First time in a long time that I laughed
January 3, 2012
I first read this book in college, when I was more interested in experimental writing styles and moving-target plotlines. I think even then it disappointed me somewhat. What Burgess has done here is to write three separate stories and intermix them (without chapters or other obvious cues when the narrative shifts from one to another) into a single novel. According to his blurb, these "three stories are all the same story," but I did not find that this concept worked. Therefore, I will review the three stories separately.
The best, and I believe the longest, is a novelization of the biography of Sigmund Freud, from his early days struggling to make ends meet and get some sort of recognition for his concept of psychoanalysis to his years of success and touring to his "betrayals" by various other psychoanalysts (Jung and Adler, especially), and ending with his ejection from Vienna by the Nazis and his arrival in England at the end of his life. As a historian, I don't often read historical fiction, and even less often do I enjoy it, but Burgess clearly did his homework. Late 19th- to Early 20th-century Europe is nicely depicted and the characters are believable while not deviating appreciably from known historical fact. I'm not an expert on Freud or his movement, and I'm sure there would be quibbles on the part of someone who was, but as a casual reader, I think this is an excellent portrayal, both sympathetic and critical at the same time. If Burgess had published this separately from the other two stories, it would earn four stars, at least, maybe five.
The next best story, which is probably close in terms of page count but I think a bit shorter, is an end-of-the-world scenario (hence the title) loosely patterned after the 1951 film "When Worlds Collide," but with a rather darker and more cynical outlook. For those not familiar, the premise is that a large interstellar body is doomed to collide with and destroy the Earth and a group of determined scientists plan to build a ship large enough to take the "most valuable" humans (mostly themselves and other scientists) on a journey through space in search of a new planet to colonize. Both variations of the story have a hot woman scientist whose love for a man not really up to the specifications of the planned crew roster causes friction. Burgess throws in a fascist-dictator scientist who attempts to enforce orderly and logical rule through force, and who plans to determine the mating of his new world according to Eugenic principles. Although parts of this story have humor, I found it overall depressing and hopeless, and far from original. I think it might be worth three stars, but only just.
The worst of the three stories, and by far the shortest, is a spec script for a musical comedy based around Trotsky's brief stay in New York city in 1917, before the October Revolution in Russia. Unlike the Freud story, no attempt to give a historical account is made, rather Burgess uses the historical setting for a very typical and bland love story which collapses upon itself at the end. Trotsky is a mere caricature, and other characters are downright 2-dimensional. The songs are redundant and generally pointless, although Burgess's knowledge of Russian results in one or two good double-entendres and puns. This is a two-star piece, whose presence amidst the better stories only drags them down.
In sum, I agree with one of the contemporary reviewers, who said that the book would have been more successful had Burgess been more interested in amusing his audience than himself. It is an interesting experiment, however, and has some good points as well.
The best, and I believe the longest, is a novelization of the biography of Sigmund Freud, from his early days struggling to make ends meet and get some sort of recognition for his concept of psychoanalysis to his years of success and touring to his "betrayals" by various other psychoanalysts (Jung and Adler, especially), and ending with his ejection from Vienna by the Nazis and his arrival in England at the end of his life. As a historian, I don't often read historical fiction, and even less often do I enjoy it, but Burgess clearly did his homework. Late 19th- to Early 20th-century Europe is nicely depicted and the characters are believable while not deviating appreciably from known historical fact. I'm not an expert on Freud or his movement, and I'm sure there would be quibbles on the part of someone who was, but as a casual reader, I think this is an excellent portrayal, both sympathetic and critical at the same time. If Burgess had published this separately from the other two stories, it would earn four stars, at least, maybe five.
The next best story, which is probably close in terms of page count but I think a bit shorter, is an end-of-the-world scenario (hence the title) loosely patterned after the 1951 film "When Worlds Collide," but with a rather darker and more cynical outlook. For those not familiar, the premise is that a large interstellar body is doomed to collide with and destroy the Earth and a group of determined scientists plan to build a ship large enough to take the "most valuable" humans (mostly themselves and other scientists) on a journey through space in search of a new planet to colonize. Both variations of the story have a hot woman scientist whose love for a man not really up to the specifications of the planned crew roster causes friction. Burgess throws in a fascist-dictator scientist who attempts to enforce orderly and logical rule through force, and who plans to determine the mating of his new world according to Eugenic principles. Although parts of this story have humor, I found it overall depressing and hopeless, and far from original. I think it might be worth three stars, but only just.
The worst of the three stories, and by far the shortest, is a spec script for a musical comedy based around Trotsky's brief stay in New York city in 1917, before the October Revolution in Russia. Unlike the Freud story, no attempt to give a historical account is made, rather Burgess uses the historical setting for a very typical and bland love story which collapses upon itself at the end. Trotsky is a mere caricature, and other characters are downright 2-dimensional. The songs are redundant and generally pointless, although Burgess's knowledge of Russian results in one or two good double-entendres and puns. This is a two-star piece, whose presence amidst the better stories only drags them down.
In sum, I agree with one of the contemporary reviewers, who said that the book would have been more successful had Burgess been more interested in amusing his audience than himself. It is an interesting experiment, however, and has some good points as well.
October 21, 2018
Muddled, magnificent three-card trick from an old master.
What do Sigmund Freud, Trotsky's sojourn in New York, and the end of the world have in common? Not a lot frankly, but Burgess didn't let that stop him merging them together in an inventive, irreverent, amusing Fin de Siècle stew of sex and death.
The first panel of the triptych is a potted history of Freud's case studies, his own neurosis, his squabbles with Jung and the Zurich school, and eventual acceptance by the scientific community. The first twenty pages, with the Freud family in Vienna being pestered by brownshirts and the Gestapo in turn, feature some of the funniest material ever written about the po-faced absurdity of the Nazis. (p13)
The middle panel is Burgess's take on that familiar Golden Age science-fiction trope, the heavenly body hurtling towards Earth bringing armageddon in it's wake. A computer-selected group of boffins prepare to save humanity by escaping in a generation spaceship while a hack sci-fi writer named Valentine Brodie, a fat, boozy actor, a religious crank and the Mob have other ideas:
'He saw clearly, as in a film version of one of his own novels, a great spaceship looking a thousand years for landfall, full of men and women with thin exact minds who would not know who Sir John Falstaff was.'
The Trotsky third of the tryptich is the least interesting but it did allow the author to indulge his twin talents for music and literature in the form of a libretto-assisted narrative. I'm sure it would have been better with the accompanying music, which the polymath Burgess no doubt also composed, in his head at least. There's a reason people don't generally sit at home reading librettos.
If I was to rate this novel on narrative cohesion, successful treatment of themes etc, I wouldn't be awarding it top marks. This is Goodreads though, I loved this book, flaws and all, big and small, e.g. most of the Trotsky part, or the surprise that how such a gifted linguist as Burgess could have imagined the phrase 'blepophone' catching on.
As Meatloaf would say, two out of three ain't bad.
What do Sigmund Freud, Trotsky's sojourn in New York, and the end of the world have in common? Not a lot frankly, but Burgess didn't let that stop him merging them together in an inventive, irreverent, amusing Fin de Siècle stew of sex and death.
The first panel of the triptych is a potted history of Freud's case studies, his own neurosis, his squabbles with Jung and the Zurich school, and eventual acceptance by the scientific community. The first twenty pages, with the Freud family in Vienna being pestered by brownshirts and the Gestapo in turn, feature some of the funniest material ever written about the po-faced absurdity of the Nazis. (p13)
The middle panel is Burgess's take on that familiar Golden Age science-fiction trope, the heavenly body hurtling towards Earth bringing armageddon in it's wake. A computer-selected group of boffins prepare to save humanity by escaping in a generation spaceship while a hack sci-fi writer named Valentine Brodie, a fat, boozy actor, a religious crank and the Mob have other ideas:
'He saw clearly, as in a film version of one of his own novels, a great spaceship looking a thousand years for landfall, full of men and women with thin exact minds who would not know who Sir John Falstaff was.'
The Trotsky third of the tryptich is the least interesting but it did allow the author to indulge his twin talents for music and literature in the form of a libretto-assisted narrative. I'm sure it would have been better with the accompanying music, which the polymath Burgess no doubt also composed, in his head at least. There's a reason people don't generally sit at home reading librettos.
If I was to rate this novel on narrative cohesion, successful treatment of themes etc, I wouldn't be awarding it top marks. This is Goodreads though, I loved this book, flaws and all, big and small, e.g. most of the Trotsky part, or the surprise that how such a gifted linguist as Burgess could have imagined the phrase 'blepophone' catching on.
As Meatloaf would say, two out of three ain't bad.
Read
May 30, 2023So what is this novel? Well, it’s a kind of a collection of novellas — three, a science fiction novel taking place in the year 2000 as a giant planet called LYNX is coming unbearably close the Earth, threatening to destroy all life there and abscond with the moon while a high school teacher who first denies the existence of the planet is then mad that he won’t be selected to help with the solution to save humanity (escape on a kind of ark); the second, a libretto of a would-be opera about Trotsky’s early days in America after his exile from the Soviet Union; three, the end days of Freud as he is exiled and removed from Austria after the Nazi anschluss in the late 1930s.
All three of these are interwoven with section breaks, but not chapter breaks, sometimes jumping back and forth among the three on single pages. It’s always clear which one you’re reading, but it’s not entirely clear why and where.
So the novel itself begins with an introduction from a literary executor (unnamed) telling you about finding the papers of an author (also unnamed) and published what feels to be representative, but not connected works together in the same edition. As the novel itself begins winnowing to a close (not exactly drawing any but the science fiction novel to a close), it seems possible that there are more connections that were immediately present in the beginning.
It’s a very strange novel that I had NO clue was about when I jumped right in. I mostly picked it because of the author, the title, and the amazing cover.
All three of these are interwoven with section breaks, but not chapter breaks, sometimes jumping back and forth among the three on single pages. It’s always clear which one you’re reading, but it’s not entirely clear why and where.
So the novel itself begins with an introduction from a literary executor (unnamed) telling you about finding the papers of an author (also unnamed) and published what feels to be representative, but not connected works together in the same edition. As the novel itself begins winnowing to a close (not exactly drawing any but the science fiction novel to a close), it seems possible that there are more connections that were immediately present in the beginning.
It’s a very strange novel that I had NO clue was about when I jumped right in. I mostly picked it because of the author, the title, and the amazing cover.
January 20, 2013
This book did not entertain me as much as A Clockwork Orange or The Wanting Seed. Personally, this book was a bit of a slog to read, although at least one character would spice things up with ridiculously Elizabethan insults.
That being said, it did have an interesting structure. There is a futuristic plot of a planet from outside the solar system barreling down on Earth and stealing the moon, a biographical story of Sigmund Freud and the early days of psychoanalysis, and a musical of Leo Trotsky in New York. By the end, the reader finds one way how they all weave together, but thematically, it seemed like there should be some more common notes.
Based on the forward, some of the structural ideas in the book were inspired by a love of music, and Anthony Burgess actually composed certain works with music in mind, which is not too surprising based on the interest in music in A Clockwork Orange.
While this book did not excite me, it was by no means such a chore that I wouldn't try some of his other works.
That being said, it did have an interesting structure. There is a futuristic plot of a planet from outside the solar system barreling down on Earth and stealing the moon, a biographical story of Sigmund Freud and the early days of psychoanalysis, and a musical of Leo Trotsky in New York. By the end, the reader finds one way how they all weave together, but thematically, it seemed like there should be some more common notes.
Based on the forward, some of the structural ideas in the book were inspired by a love of music, and Anthony Burgess actually composed certain works with music in mind, which is not too surprising based on the interest in music in A Clockwork Orange.
While this book did not excite me, it was by no means such a chore that I wouldn't try some of his other works.
December 27, 2015
What do Trotsky, Freud, and a rogue planet have in common?
This novel -- and not much else. Burgess attempts to bring these three parallel stories together at the end of this end-of-times novel. He succeeds in a satisfactory way, to be sure, but the synthesis is less than the sum of its parts. There is no resonance, as there would be with three topics whose connection inspired the book: one is left with the impression that Freud and Trotsky were chosen haphazardly, as if Burgess were reading about them anyways and decided to incorporate them into the novel.
And what a novel it is! Putting aside the sympathetic biopic of Freud and the unsympathetic musical of Trotsky, this is a fantastic end-of-the-world story. The politicians and scientists are trying to find some way to preserve human culture. But what defines human culture? What deserves to be saved? The question echoes throughout the story, and everybody has their own answer.
This novel -- and not much else. Burgess attempts to bring these three parallel stories together at the end of this end-of-times novel. He succeeds in a satisfactory way, to be sure, but the synthesis is less than the sum of its parts. There is no resonance, as there would be with three topics whose connection inspired the book: one is left with the impression that Freud and Trotsky were chosen haphazardly, as if Burgess were reading about them anyways and decided to incorporate them into the novel.
And what a novel it is! Putting aside the sympathetic biopic of Freud and the unsympathetic musical of Trotsky, this is a fantastic end-of-the-world story. The politicians and scientists are trying to find some way to preserve human culture. But what defines human culture? What deserves to be saved? The question echoes throughout the story, and everybody has their own answer.
June 15, 2015
How frustrating! Burgess has both highs and lows in this brick of a book dating back to the 1980's. A novel packed with 3 different story lines: An interesting Sci-fi story, a kind of rehash of Sigmund Freud's career and a musical section focused on Leon Trotsky. I guess the collision of these 3 subjects could have worked, but Burgess, in my opinion, failed to make a cohesive piece. Had he found a new angle for Freud--he didn't--or a reason to portray Trotsky in a musical format--he didn't--I wouldn't have found these sections so tedious. His sci-fi story about the end of the world (Due to a threatening rogue planet) was far more superior to the other stories, but undeveloped. Purposefully I think because he had those other 2 story lines to contend with. This is only for Burgess fans. But be wary fans, it's Burgess at his most self-indulgent..
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