Middle C by William H. Gass

There are writers one respects and admires, but doesn’t necessarily enjoy reading. William Gass—for me—falls into this category. Middle C is an impressive and ambitious novel, which—hard as I tried—I couldn’t finish. The protagonist, Joseph, is the son of an Austrian man who, in order to get his family away from the Nazis, took the identity of a Jewish man, then, when the war ended, disappeared. The family moved from England to America—where Joseph’s story begins.

Like his father, Joseph is a musician—and if you are a lover of classical music, Gass’s outstanding knowledge on the subject is certainly a plus. Joseph keeps reflecting on the fate of humanity by way of rephrasing a sentence, “The fear that the human race might not survive has been replaced by the fear that it will endure.” Raymond Queneau did something similar in Exercises in Style—but Queneau is a very playful, funny writer, while Gass is a very serious one, and his numerous variations on the above sentence become tiresome. In fact, turning the pages of this book was the equivalent of a heavy lifting, in spite of Gass’s amazingly intricate-beautiful style.

As unenthusiastic as this review sounds, I want to thank Knopf for having published this “reader-unfriendly,” challenging novel. These days, it is a treat to feel, as a reader, that a publisher wants to lift you (up), rather than satisfy your lowest impulses.