Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating subjects but no fun to read
Review: "Longing" is a fictionalized biography of composer Robert Schumann and his wife, pianist/composer Clara Wieck Schumann. Schumann and Wieck lived fascinating lives in the midst of the Romantic movement, an era full of change & upheaval, and hobnobbed with the likes of Chopin, Mendelsohn, Brahms and more. Schumann first met Wieck when she was a child and their relationship began (platonically at first) when he came to study piano under her father. "Longing" traces the often tortured relationship between the two, as well as the relationships between Schumann and Wieck and their music. All of this sounds like a great read -- but for me, the writing style made plowing through this book just too painful. The author is fond of long, twisted sentences and lengthy paragraphs full of digressions. Constant references to great thinkers, musicians, historical events distract from the narrative rather than adding to it. The author obviously did copious research, but instead of integrating it seamlessly into the novel (and this is indeed a novel, not a work of nonfiction), he hits you over the head with it. An example are the frequent footnotes, which really don't relate to the narrative at all but are sidelights that the author found interesting but I found distracting and usually irrelevant. When I get to the point where I find myself thinking "I ought to finish this book" rather than eagerly anticipating a chance to read more, it's time to move on. It's a shame, though, because I really wanted to like this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Ex Votus
Review: "The epigraphs are archival. The characters are historical. The dates of events and correspondence are, when verifiable, authentic. The rest is fiction masquerading as fact, and the reverse." (Author's Note)Historical fiction demands of the Author both accuracy, and the ability to occupy the interstices that the historical record has left. When done well, as is the case with "Longing" by J.D. Landis, the result is excellent. His writing is credible to the level of personal dialogue and gestures. When done poorly, this genre does not even pause when sinking past Revisionist History. When this happens the work falls into a void where mediocrity reigns over writing hopefully forgotten. This work does not come easily to the reader, the book contains extensive detail on Pianos, their makers, and how they differ. The vocabulary of gifted, classically trained artists is used liberally, and context does not suffice. How is any but the rarest of readers capable of listening to List, Chopin, and Mendelssohn describe their art? Happily Mr. Landis brings some portions of his book down several technical steps. My personal favorite was his description of an impromptu duel between List and Mendelssohn. In addition he brought the same event forward in time when he compared the duel to Billie Holliday and Coleman Hawkins, when they performed in Harlem at Nightsie Johnsons a century later. The Author's description of the first intimacy shared by Clara and Robert is one of the best I have ever read. He demonstrates beautifully that carnal detail is for the voyeur, that it is not more, that it does not add, it is only the refuge of bad writing. The story is of course about Clara and Robert Schumann and their relationship, which evolves in spite of all that is done to keep them apart, and because of the love they are consumed by. Robert is a composer who cannot play what he writes, and what he does compose is largely disliked by a public who "does not understand". Robert is passionate, tortured, he is the victim of his music, the literal damage it has done to his hand, and the madness he has always known would consume him. Clara champions his music when she is kept from him, and she crosses Europe once and then dozens of times, as she is one of the finest Pianists at a time when there are numerous others who are known as well or better to the very present. The world Clara occupies, and that Robert can only just be present in, when not welcome at all, is as fantastic as the composers she is among. She writes to Robert of her conversations with Soren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen with an ease that can only come from familiarity. Her world is extraordinary. She compares his life to that of Andersen when she states, "His work is hated here! Like you he is a prophet who goes unhonored in his own Country." Robert sees himself thusly, "Everything I write, I write out of love for her." The Author also allows for moments that seem odd until placed in context. I never had thought of a Chopin or Mendelssohn complaining about the alleged wording of their endorsements of the instruments they play. But why should 19th century all stars be denied what their counterparts today practice? This is a wonderful read, and the comments I have made barely touch upon all that this writer offers through this work. Like most writing of excellence it requires more effort than most, but the reader is handsomely rewarded. Mr. Landis has produced a gift for all readers, and perhaps an even more special treasure for those whose knowledge of music is as great as their love for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Listen while you read
Review: "Longing" inspired me to play every CD of Robert and Clara Schumann's music that I could find. What a way to add another layer of beauty to a compelling and satisfying reading experience! I listened while I read, and played the music written in the year of the sections, then I listened some more when I wasn't reading.
Rating:
Summary: Listen while you read
Review: "Longing" inspired me to play every CD of Robert and Clara Schumann's music that I could find. What a way to add another layer of beauty to a compelling and satisfying reading experience! I listened while I read, and played the music written in the year of the sections, then I listened some more when I wasn't reading.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating subjects but no fun to read
Review: "Longing" is a fictionalized biography of composer Robert Schumann and his wife, pianist/composer Clara Wieck Schumann. Schumann and Wieck lived fascinating lives in the midst of the Romantic movement, an era full of change & upheaval, and hobnobbed with the likes of Chopin, Mendelsohn, Brahms and more. Schumann first met Wieck when she was a child and their relationship began (platonically at first) when he came to study piano under her father. "Longing" traces the often tortured relationship between the two, as well as the relationships between Schumann and Wieck and their music. All of this sounds like a great read -- but for me, the writing style made plowing through this book just too painful. The author is fond of long, twisted sentences and lengthy paragraphs full of digressions. Constant references to great thinkers, musicians, historical events distract from the narrative rather than adding to it. The author obviously did copious research, but instead of integrating it seamlessly into the novel (and this is indeed a novel, not a work of nonfiction), he hits you over the head with it. An example are the frequent footnotes, which really don't relate to the narrative at all but are sidelights that the author found interesting but I found distracting and usually irrelevant. When I get to the point where I find myself thinking "I ought to finish this book" rather than eagerly anticipating a chance to read more, it's time to move on. It's a shame, though, because I really wanted to like this book.
Rating:
Summary: Tragedy and Joy of Art and Love
Review: ... The writing is beautiful-almost every page has a phrase or metaphor you want to memorize. The references to great thinkers, musicians and historical events are crucial to understanding the atmosphere and context in which the Schumann's lived. The footnotes are actually infrequent, but always interesting, often poignant. The sentences are not particularly long, but you do have to reread occasionally to get the meaning, especially the way Robert Schumann speaks in riddles throughout the book. This just makes the narrative richer. One of the few recent books I've read that I want to read again right away.
Rating:
Summary: Language, music, and creativity
Review: After I began this book, I loved reading it. Clara Wieck Schumann and Robert Schumann are creative in their lives and their art, and Landis is creative in his language. This is a book about creativity as much as it is about desire. The writing is eloquent, lyrical, and intelligent. As a reading specialist, writer, and composition teacher, I understand the varied reactions to Landis' writing style. Most people would find his sentence structure and vocabulary difficult and challenging. For those who love the complexities of language, this is a feast. I found myself wondering how Landis had attained his use of language and vocabulary. "Longing" is for those who love language, music, the creative process and lives of creative people.
Rating:
Summary: Language, music, and creativity
Review: After I began this book, I loved reading it. Clara Wieck Schumann and Robert Schumann are creative in their lives and their art, and Landis is creative in his language. This is a book about creativity as much as it is about desire. The writing is eloquent, lyrical, and intelligent. As a reading specialist, writer, and composition teacher, I understand the varied reactions to Landis' writing style. Most people would find his sentence structure and vocabulary difficult and challenging. For those who love the complexities of language, this is a feast. I found myself wondering how Landis had attained his use of language and vocabulary. "Longing" is for those who love language, music, the creative process and lives of creative people.
Rating:
Summary: Not Great Fiction and Not History Either
Review: As a music historian, I am always curious about "historical fiction," particularly when it involves great musicians like the Schumanns. I hoped the author might provide some insight into the psychology of these fabled lovers and their friends. It's clear that Landis has done the research: verifiable quotes from Liszt, Mendelssohn, et al. pop up on nearly every page. Oddly enough, they don't make the story more vivid. Just the opposite--we are continually reminded of how much baggage the author of any novel based on real people may have to drag around. I wanted to enjoy this more. But the fiction part of it just wasn't very convincing or engaging. I didn't believe for a minute, for example, all the Lolita-like sexual curiosity and longing with which Landis burdens the (very!) young Clara Wieck. And Robert, a man whose music breathes poetry, comes across in these pages as a pig with unmanageable appetites. There were numerous modernist touches in the narrative, a kind of clinical coldness more easily associated with 20th-century literature than with the ardent Romanticism of the Schumanns' time. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: When Less Is More
Review: Considerable scholarship is reflected in this novel, sometimes to the detriment of the story. In addition to a wealth of detail about leading musicians of the Romantic Age, the author provides a number of footnotes. The latter, according to the author, help to establish a "narrative stance at some remove from the nineteenth century subject matter. Yet that stance is muddled by digressions within the novel proper. At times, the central account of Clara and Robert Schumann's lives halts as the narrator elaborates on his idiosyncratic view of the historical scene. As Clara travels to Paris during the Revolution of l830, the reader is required to consider the notion that "revolution began at the birth of man, whether at Eden or what Germans liked to think was Heidelberg..." (p. 80) While the concept of revolution is certainly central to the Romantics' creative efforts, a two page digression on the particular political events of 1830 does little to advance our appreciation of them.
With the voluminous correspondence between the Schumanns as a primary resource, Landis draws a portrait of the relationship which began when Clara was but eight and Robert ten years older. Initially founded on their mutual talents and love of classical music, it evolves with her maturation. Robert is presented as the quintessential Romantic, who "embraced melancholy as a kind of philosophical imperative," regarded the world as populated by philistines indifferent to his creativity, and whose genius verging on madness finally resulted in his commitment to an asylum.
Employing a dense, somewhat convoluted style, (one sentence consumed fifteen lines of printed text) the narrator occasionally lapses in curiously puerile descriptions. When Robert finds himself unable to compose, he experiences gastric upset: "Fart he did, from one corner of the room to another. It was a wonder there was not a depression in his piano bench to match that in his mind." (p. l52) How such a comparison might illuminate Robert's frustration is dubious and completely inconsistent with the overall tenor of the narration.
If the goal of historical fiction is to capture the spirit of an age through representative characters, actual or fictional, this novel can be considered a qualified success. Greater narrative restrait would have enhanced it.
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