Julian Rathbone: Intimacy

Filed under: Book Reviews, Novels   

Naomi Delap

I feel sorry for writers these days. It's so terribly difficult to be iconoclastic, what with the Irvine Welsh backlash just about to break and that sinking feeling you get whenever blurb describes anything as remotely Tarantinoesque. There are no new subjects to write about, and any attempt at novelty eventually and inevitably seems to hoist itself with its own petard. Perhaps the answer is not to try.

Julian Rathbone's new novel is his twenty-third; he's an old-fashioned kind of an author, of some standing in the literary world. Intimacy's primary subject is incest, but while some writers would look on one of society's last major taboos as a call for sensationalism, Rathbone handles the whole tricky area with no small amount of subtlety and skill.

David Querubin is the world's last great castrato singer, a peerless interpreter of baroque and rococo music, who has retired as a professional musician because of ill-health and failing eyesight. To his beautiful Andalucian villa comes Petra Von Sturm, a young singer whose talent persuades Querubin to take her on as his pupil, teaching her the castrato roles which have made him famous.

Ensconced in the villa, Petra starts to learn about the music that David so loves, but also to question the mystery surrounding his adolescence in Spain's troubled 1930s, and the true nature of his relationship with his adored mother. Are David's memories of that time true, or pure sexual fantasy? And how did he come to be castrated?

Rathbone approaches the subject of incest without any seeming desire to shock, presenting rather the two sides of the argument that incest is "natural" (because it happens), but that the psychological fallout is, perhaps invariably, incredibly disturbing. He shows incestuous relationships that are ill-judged but full of sweetness, beautiful but tragic. There is an element of titillation in reading the book, but I think that comes from the reader (certainly this reader), and a conditioned response to the subject.

It's not the unfolding revelations that provide the book with its primary impetus or interest, because of their seeming inevitability. Intimacy develops as organically as the descriptions of the changing Andalucian seasons. The sensuality of the landscape is linked in its turn with the measured development of the style of music valorised in the book; no less passionate because of its control. It refuses to build to a romantic climax (in the Wagnerian sense), and in that restraint lies the novel's strength.

Julian Rathbone's prose is resonant and sedate at the same time; he is not young, neither is he groovy in an ephemeral way. However, Rathbone has managed what many literary upstarts have failed to do: namely to subvert. And he has achieved this through signally avoiding the temptation to shock.

Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historic Crime
Amazon Price: $11.01
Customer Review: The name Ellis Peters in the title of the book was clearly meant to lure readers. None of the writers are up to her standards. There is no shame in not being a master but it left me feeling a little che...

Last English King
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $14.11
Customer Review: I really, really wanted to like this book. But I just couldn't. I'm not going to re-write all of the negatives others have posted. Take my advice and believe the other posters. Don't spend a lot of mo...

The Mutiny
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $11.96

As Bad As It Gets
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $24.95
Customer Review: Bournemouth private investigator Chris Shovelin wraps up the investigation of the death of a millionaire's son during a scuba accident in Mombassa and decides to stay in Kenya and have a holiday. In just ...

A Very English Agent
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $11.86
Customer Review: A Very English Agent was just an ok read. Lots of satire, but it wearys you as our hero (or anti-hero) narrates his exploits as an agent of the crown. The settings and targets of his subterfuge change, b...

Wellington's War: His Peninsular Dispatches
Amazon Price:
Customer Review: Normally I would give this a 3/4 star review, but as the book isn't likely to be reviewed frequently, I'll give it a 5 to balance the other review.
Rathbone has taken Wellington's written commentary on the Penin...

Homage
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $9.95

Accidents Will Happen (A Mask Noir Title)
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $11.04

Kings of Albion
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $14.11
Customer Review: Set in 1460 England during the Wars of the Roses, Kings Of Albion by Julian Rathbone is a superbly crafted and highly recommended novel that follows visitors from the civilized empire of South India, who ...

Blame Hitler
by Julian Rathbone
Amazon Price: $9.34
Customer Review: The summary description of "Blame Hitler" covers the basics of the story well, without actually identifying the aspects that engage the reader making Thomas' bleeding bowel a topic of minor interest. Mino...

Posted on June 1st, 1996.

Other SpikeMagazine.com posts of interest:

• Susana Baca : Espiritu Vivo
• Atomic Swindlers : Coming Out Electric
• Julian Murphy : The Singular Art Of Julian Murphy : Hoover Groover
• David Sylvian : The Last Romantic : Adventures Of The Spirit
• David Thomas: Pere Ubu : I Never Volunteer Information

Browse More On SpikeMagazine.com