Clara

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 13 JAN 2003

Renowned in her own lifetime as a brilliant pianist, Clara Wieck Schumann is today less well known than her famous composer husband, Robert Schumann. By the time readers reach the end of talented Scottish writer Galloway's (Blood, etc.) tour de force, they will feel intimate with and sympathetic to both tormented musical geniuses. Galloway uses stream of consciousness and often achieves transcendence. The prose explodes with urgency: terse observations alternate with poetic descriptions and artful games while shifting typefaces heighten the energy. The book is most masterful in the early chapters, devoted to Clara's rise as musical prodigy under the ferocious tutelage of her father, Friedrich Wieck. By the time she circumvents Wieck to marry Robert Schumann, who has loved her since she was 12, the reader may feel exhausted. But perhaps this is Galloway's intent, for Robert is exhausting in the tragic manner of madmen who seem to be many people at the same time. Clara's sturdiness is almost as remarkable as her talent as a pianist and composer; her pregnancies were many and hard (eight children survived); ministering to her husband's mercurial moods, inspiring his creativity and furthering his career required unparalleled devotion. Galloway's research is evident in these details, which are sometimes too minute but contribute to the starkly authentic atmosphere. She also conveys the ways in which Clara's own creativity continued despite her husband's madness and ultimate breakdown. The musical background is equally rich. Musical giants walked the earth in the Schumanns' 19th-century Germany, and Mendelssohn, Brahms, Liszt and Chopin make a compelling chorus in this operatic drama. . Booksellers will want to target that audience, but this novel will also appeal to discriminating readers of literary fiction.