What do you think?
Rate this book
Quartet for the End of Time
Inspired by and structured around the chamber piece of the same title by the French composer Olivier Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time is a mesmerizing story of four lives irrevocably linked in a single act of betrayal. The novel takes us on an unforgettable journey beginning during the 1930s Bonus Army riots, when World War I veteran Arthur Sinclair is falsely accused of conspiracy and then disappears. His absence will haunt his son, Douglas, as well as Alden and Sutton Kelly, the children of a powerful U.S. congressman, as they experience—each in different ways—the dynamic political social changes that took place leading up to and during World War II.
From the New Deal projects through which Douglas, newly fatherless, makes his living to Sutton’s work as a journalist, to Alden’s life as a code breaker and a spy, each character is haunted by the past and is searching for love, hope, and redemption in a world torn apart by chaos and war. Through the lives of these characters, as well as those of their lovers, friends, and enemies, the novel transports us from the Siberian Expedition of World War I to the underground world of a Soviet spy in the 1920s and 1930s, to the occultist circle of P. D. Ouspensky and London during the Blitz, to the German prison camp where Messiaen originally composed and performed his famous Quartet for the End of Time.
At every turn, this rich and ambitious novel tells some of the less well-known stories of twentieth-century history with epic scope and astonishing power, revealing at every turn the ways in which history and memory tend to follow us, and in which absence has a palpable presence.
From the New Deal projects through which Douglas, newly fatherless, makes his living to Sutton’s work as a journalist, to Alden’s life as a code breaker and a spy, each character is haunted by the past and is searching for love, hope, and redemption in a world torn apart by chaos and war. Through the lives of these characters, as well as those of their lovers, friends, and enemies, the novel transports us from the Siberian Expedition of World War I to the underground world of a Soviet spy in the 1920s and 1930s, to the occultist circle of P. D. Ouspensky and London during the Blitz, to the German prison camp where Messiaen originally composed and performed his famous Quartet for the End of Time.
At every turn, this rich and ambitious novel tells some of the less well-known stories of twentieth-century history with epic scope and astonishing power, revealing at every turn the ways in which history and memory tend to follow us, and in which absence has a palpable presence.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2014
19 people are currently reading
1052 people want to read
About the author
Johanna Skibsrud
21 books52 followersJohanna Skibsrud is a Canadian writer whose debut novel The Sentimentalists, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is also the author of This Will Be Difficult to Explain, as well as two poetry collections. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
February 24, 2017
The Las Vegas Syndrome
According to urban folklore the worst thing that can happen to anyone in Las Vegas is to win first time at the slot machines. Winning out of the gate produces a feeling of hope if not invincibility that tempts one to rationalise doubling one's bet until, well, ultimate disaster.
Johanna Skibsrud is undoubtedly a skilful writer. But her 2010 prize-winning The Sentimentalists, written at age at age 30, seems to have given her the same sense of overconfidence as the novice winning gambler. She has more than doubled her bet with Quartet for the End of Time. I think she's lost.
Skibsrud's title is purportedly an homage to the 1941 chamber-piece by Olivier Messiaen. Like the musical piece, her book has four main parts - her characters, his instruments - that fit somewhat unconventionally together in terms of narrative flow. So there is a vague similarity at that level. And music scored for piano, clarinet, violin and cello is unusual. Possibly therefore the combination of the book's central characters - Sutton and Alden Kelly and Douglas and Arthur Sinclair are intended to be somewhat unconventional. The first two are establishment figures and the latter two working class stiffs. It’s a real stretch but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.
Like Messiaen, Skibsrud plays with the idea of time. He through his use of techniques like augmented, diminished and Hindu rhythms and even the use of bird song to escape temporal musical conventions; she by recycling through events from different narrative perspectives. She also eliminates entirely the conventional distinction between direct and indirect speech so that the rhythm of the text doesn't suffer from interruptions, as it were, by the characters.
The problem with this latter technique is that all the characters end up speaking like Skibsrud even if they start out like someone else. For example, Arthur Sinclair's recounting of his Siberian war experience is disconcertingly articulate and erudite in comparison with his folksy, down-home, mid-West conversation. So not revelatory of a novel concept of time, merely confusing. All her 'instruments' become drably the same, lacking Messiaen's unusual harmonies and coloration.
Both works are divided into seven sections with an additional interlude. But what correspondence there is between Messiaen's piece and the book is beyond me. Messiaen opens, for example, with a delicate dawn chorus of celestial birdsong which then makes a dramatic and unmistakeable transition to the voice of the angel who insistently announces his presence and purpose in strident musical language.
In Skibsrud, on the other hand, the first section is used, in a somewhat enigmatic but nonetheless bland way, to set up the motive force of her story: a lie told by Sutton as a teenager, vindicating her brother and incriminating the elder Sinclair. This then leads into the back-story of the Sinclairs. I detect not the slightest literary hint of heavenly birdsong nor the apocalyptic angel, just the same relentless prose on and on without variation.
Perhaps the central conceit of the book is also to be found in these first sections. Messiaen bases his work on the dramatic verses of the tenth chapter of the biblical book of Revelation:
"Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars."
Whether one interprets Messiaen as referring to the literal end of the world, the end of musical time or the entry of an individual soul into a realm of heavenly piece, it is difficult to imagine how Skibsrud intended to approach this kind of cosmic scheme. A young girl telling a lie, even when that lie ramifies significantly among a small group of people, is hardly of existential, or even generalizable import. Skibsrud’s title is a travesty. Her choice of title may indeed have been inspired by a Messiaenic(!) experience but it certainly can't be justified by that experience, which is undetectable in the story.
Towards the beginning of the book Arthur Sinclair makes an observation on his war-time trauma in Siberia: "We are always so quick, aren't we, to translate what we see - the pure material of the world - into our own image. We refuse to let it rest...as it first arrives." I agree. And I think Ms Skibsrud might have been a little too quick on the draw trying to assimilate her experience of Messiaen's music into her literary self-image.
My suggestion is to stay away from the high stakes tables for a while.
According to urban folklore the worst thing that can happen to anyone in Las Vegas is to win first time at the slot machines. Winning out of the gate produces a feeling of hope if not invincibility that tempts one to rationalise doubling one's bet until, well, ultimate disaster.
Johanna Skibsrud is undoubtedly a skilful writer. But her 2010 prize-winning The Sentimentalists, written at age at age 30, seems to have given her the same sense of overconfidence as the novice winning gambler. She has more than doubled her bet with Quartet for the End of Time. I think she's lost.
Skibsrud's title is purportedly an homage to the 1941 chamber-piece by Olivier Messiaen. Like the musical piece, her book has four main parts - her characters, his instruments - that fit somewhat unconventionally together in terms of narrative flow. So there is a vague similarity at that level. And music scored for piano, clarinet, violin and cello is unusual. Possibly therefore the combination of the book's central characters - Sutton and Alden Kelly and Douglas and Arthur Sinclair are intended to be somewhat unconventional. The first two are establishment figures and the latter two working class stiffs. It’s a real stretch but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.
Like Messiaen, Skibsrud plays with the idea of time. He through his use of techniques like augmented, diminished and Hindu rhythms and even the use of bird song to escape temporal musical conventions; she by recycling through events from different narrative perspectives. She also eliminates entirely the conventional distinction between direct and indirect speech so that the rhythm of the text doesn't suffer from interruptions, as it were, by the characters.
The problem with this latter technique is that all the characters end up speaking like Skibsrud even if they start out like someone else. For example, Arthur Sinclair's recounting of his Siberian war experience is disconcertingly articulate and erudite in comparison with his folksy, down-home, mid-West conversation. So not revelatory of a novel concept of time, merely confusing. All her 'instruments' become drably the same, lacking Messiaen's unusual harmonies and coloration.
Both works are divided into seven sections with an additional interlude. But what correspondence there is between Messiaen's piece and the book is beyond me. Messiaen opens, for example, with a delicate dawn chorus of celestial birdsong which then makes a dramatic and unmistakeable transition to the voice of the angel who insistently announces his presence and purpose in strident musical language.
In Skibsrud, on the other hand, the first section is used, in a somewhat enigmatic but nonetheless bland way, to set up the motive force of her story: a lie told by Sutton as a teenager, vindicating her brother and incriminating the elder Sinclair. This then leads into the back-story of the Sinclairs. I detect not the slightest literary hint of heavenly birdsong nor the apocalyptic angel, just the same relentless prose on and on without variation.
Perhaps the central conceit of the book is also to be found in these first sections. Messiaen bases his work on the dramatic verses of the tenth chapter of the biblical book of Revelation:
"Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars."
Whether one interprets Messiaen as referring to the literal end of the world, the end of musical time or the entry of an individual soul into a realm of heavenly piece, it is difficult to imagine how Skibsrud intended to approach this kind of cosmic scheme. A young girl telling a lie, even when that lie ramifies significantly among a small group of people, is hardly of existential, or even generalizable import. Skibsrud’s title is a travesty. Her choice of title may indeed have been inspired by a Messiaenic(!) experience but it certainly can't be justified by that experience, which is undetectable in the story.
Towards the beginning of the book Arthur Sinclair makes an observation on his war-time trauma in Siberia: "We are always so quick, aren't we, to translate what we see - the pure material of the world - into our own image. We refuse to let it rest...as it first arrives." I agree. And I think Ms Skibsrud might have been a little too quick on the draw trying to assimilate her experience of Messiaen's music into her literary self-image.
My suggestion is to stay away from the high stakes tables for a while.
September 17, 2014
I am unsure how to rate this book, the subject matter was interesting but I found the writing to be too intelligent, in that even the most salt of the earth characters talk like seasoned intellectuals.
There were also a lot of chunks of this book that I found to be somewhat boring and overwritten. I did however really enjoy Sutton's chapters, this may be because I found that her narrative was the only one that matched the writing style.
Overall if you already have a liking for war fiction you may enjoy this, I think that this novel would be appreciated most by a patient reader. 2.5/5
Note: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
November 17, 2014
Quartet for the End of Time opens during 1932 with the “Bonus Army” preparing to march. This was a very interesting piece of history of which I knew nothing about.
In 1924 The World War Compensation Act awarded those who had fought in WWI a bonus. This bonus was to make up for the difference a solider could have made if he was employed state side instead of fighting in Europe. The Bonus was payable in 1945 or upon the veteran death.
During the height of the Great Depression, veterans faced with the impossibility of securing a job began to assemble in Washington and demand immediate payment of their Bonus. In 1932 approximately 43,000 veterans from across the United States descended on Washington, DC. This march was significant in many respects. It was the first such mass gathering in Washington and its precedence led to other such organized gatherings during the Civil Rights and War Opposition movements.
Payment of the Bonus was approved by the House, but vetoed by the Senate. The American Military was brought in to quell the demonstrators. FDR vetoed the bill again in 1936, but the House and Senate overrode the veto and the Bonus was finally paid.
There is an excellent and short PBS documentary on this period of time-The march of the Bonus Army available on YouTube.
Back to the book
1. There are three major characters in the book, and what felt like hundreds of minor characters. The sheer number of characters relating their stories to, or having their stories related by, the protagonists was incredibly overwhelming.
2. The book is full of parenthetical asides and subordinate clauses-too many for my taste. This technique slowed the reading and caused some confusion. Here is an example from page 340:
“It was toward-he would warn them-not the radical right nor the radical left, but (he could almost see it, he said, glistening before them) the dark center in the middle they were ultimately bound…And all the time, as he spoke propped comfortably on one elbow in his narrow rented room near the Jardin Atlantique on the Boulevard Pasteur-they might have easily been convinced that he was actually off fighting foreign wars, which they themselves could not entirely support or understand.
Is this one sentence? Where is the editor?
3. Philosophical musings and discussions drag the novel down. The author is obviously very bright, but there was just too many of these discussion and I found myself losing interest.
Again…Where is the editor?
Would I recommend this book to a friend? No. Was the topic interesting? Yes.
September 1, 2014
I'm giving this book 2.5 stars.
I like the first half of the book better than the second half and it could have been shorter and tighter. I think I understood what the author was trying to do but the solid, grand themes of social inequality, the affects of war during and after, as well as personal themes of shame and guilt, became lost in the second half of the book which dragged a lot.
The book is narrated by three voices and we meet them in the first half of the book in early 1930’s during the Great Depression in United States. Sutton and Alden are sisters and brothers of well-to do family, whose father is a judge and Douglas is a son of a working class family who followed his father, Arthur, first WWI veteran, to Washington to join the Bonus Army. But when unexpected event occurs, Arthur is falsely accused of crime he didn’t commit and goes missing. The event hunted and shapes both Sutton and Alden’s lives, both having had a part to play in Arthur’s circumstance.
The second half of the book deals with the narrators who are older and living their own lives. Sutton becomes a journalist, a bold career for woman in the 30”s and goes on to report during WWII while Alden who is hunted by his guilt and his family role in the Arthur’s event, alienate them and gets involved in Communist activity and moved to another country. Douglas is the biggest victim, he has lost his father and unable to face his mother without the bonus or his missing father, becomes part of hobos who travels around the country looking for work.
The characters are emotionally detached and keep to themselves. I’m not sure if this is author’s style since this is the first time reading her book. In this book it works to a certain extent. For example, I couldn’t understand the non-existing relationship between Douglas and his mother, since not once does he think or says that he misses or love her.
I like the first half of the book better than the second half and it could have been shorter and tighter. I think I understood what the author was trying to do but the solid, grand themes of social inequality, the affects of war during and after, as well as personal themes of shame and guilt, became lost in the second half of the book which dragged a lot.
The book is narrated by three voices and we meet them in the first half of the book in early 1930’s during the Great Depression in United States. Sutton and Alden are sisters and brothers of well-to do family, whose father is a judge and Douglas is a son of a working class family who followed his father, Arthur, first WWI veteran, to Washington to join the Bonus Army. But when unexpected event occurs, Arthur is falsely accused of crime he didn’t commit and goes missing. The event hunted and shapes both Sutton and Alden’s lives, both having had a part to play in Arthur’s circumstance.
The second half of the book deals with the narrators who are older and living their own lives. Sutton becomes a journalist, a bold career for woman in the 30”s and goes on to report during WWII while Alden who is hunted by his guilt and his family role in the Arthur’s event, alienate them and gets involved in Communist activity and moved to another country. Douglas is the biggest victim, he has lost his father and unable to face his mother without the bonus or his missing father, becomes part of hobos who travels around the country looking for work.
The characters are emotionally detached and keep to themselves. I’m not sure if this is author’s style since this is the first time reading her book. In this book it works to a certain extent. For example, I couldn’t understand the non-existing relationship between Douglas and his mother, since not once does he think or says that he misses or love her.
October 14, 2014
*received ARC copy*
I was really looking forward to this book, since it seemed so me. References to the Great War, WWII and music? Yes, please.
I hate to say it, but I was really disappointed. The period in between the wars, particularly in the U.S., is not a part of history that I know a great deal about. But going into this book with not a lot of knowledge turned out not to be a great idea, because there was no explanation here. The "story" (and I use the term loosely) was told in impressionistic episodes, none of which really came to any conclusion. The characters were never fully developed, and I never really got to a point where I cared about any of them or what happened to them. They all seemed 2-dimensional and fictitious which, of course they were. The author also has a very annoying habit of writing in fragmented, run-on sentences which are difficult to follow.
The best part about this book, for me, was the episode which contained the story of Messiaen and how he came to write Quartet for the End of Time, which didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the book.
Maybe this book is just too smart and above me, but it felt pretty painful while I was slogging through it. Kudos for managing to fit a rather obscure, modern piece of art music into a book about the Depression.
I was really looking forward to this book, since it seemed so me. References to the Great War, WWII and music? Yes, please.
I hate to say it, but I was really disappointed. The period in between the wars, particularly in the U.S., is not a part of history that I know a great deal about. But going into this book with not a lot of knowledge turned out not to be a great idea, because there was no explanation here. The "story" (and I use the term loosely) was told in impressionistic episodes, none of which really came to any conclusion. The characters were never fully developed, and I never really got to a point where I cared about any of them or what happened to them. They all seemed 2-dimensional and fictitious which, of course they were. The author also has a very annoying habit of writing in fragmented, run-on sentences which are difficult to follow.
The best part about this book, for me, was the episode which contained the story of Messiaen and how he came to write Quartet for the End of Time, which didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the book.
Maybe this book is just too smart and above me, but it felt pretty painful while I was slogging through it. Kudos for managing to fit a rather obscure, modern piece of art music into a book about the Depression.
August 1, 2025
I don’t even want to waste time and words on reviewing this book. Too many characters, too much parenthetical sentence construction made it very hard to follow. And yet I finished it, although I was definitely skimming the last 100 pages. No idea what it’s about. So many regrets.
July 26, 2017
So many GoodReads reviewers, even those that liked this book, note its density, how difficult it is to read. I didn’t really find it so--not nearly as much so as, say, Jonathan Lethem’s Dissident Gardens, of which this is somewhat reminiscent. Sure, it’s highly introspective, way more than would be realistic for these characters. And, sure, there are plenty of long paragraphs and long sentences, with clauses going off in different directions. And in the seventh chapter (of 8, just as there are 8 movements in Olivier Messiaen’s composition bearing the same title), the narrative flies off in all sorts of directions, almost as if the narrator is free associating (though more sustained on each point or story than stream-of-consciousness writing, which I deplore). (It is in this chapter that we are actually told the story behind Messiaen’s composition.) But I didn’t generally find it difficult to follow. Instead it seems--to me, at least--that the author successfully and authentically takes us inside the minds of these conflicted characters. I marveled at the range of experiences and emotions the author was able to convey. There are, to be sure, depths here that I was unable to plumb, particularly in the 30-page photo “interlude.” But mostly I appreciated the complexity of the characters and their experiences. The story follows 3 characters (seems like it should be 4 if it’s a “quartet,” no?, but perhaps the 4th is Douglas’s father, who plays a central role in the story, if largely absent from its actual development) from their meeting during the Bonus Army march on Washington in 1932 through WWII. We see the history of this period from perspectives that we don’t usually see. For all its strengths--and my appreciation of them--this is not a novel that I’d readily recommend to most readers.
November 26, 2014
I had to give four stars to this book, almost went to five, although I must say there are not many people that I would recommend it to. The writing is brilliant, and that is what kept me going. There is almost too much content, and it begs a re-read because there is so much detail, and complicated dialogues, much of these internal to the characters. "The Quartet for the End of Time" is also a complicated piece of music so it provides a most suitable parallel to this novel. The history depicted of the Bonus Army march was most interesting to me, and the many post-war aspects of this event right into World War II were fascinating. There are so many themes and motifs throughout the book, that one almost feels like being faced with a banquet each time the you open the book.
Bouquets of praise to the author, who has so thoroughly presented this material in such a thoughtful, detailed and colorful way.
Bouquets of praise to the author, who has so thoroughly presented this material in such a thoughtful, detailed and colorful way.
September 8, 2014
Well it is tough for me to review this book or even rate it. I'm still trying to figure out what happened in it...at times it seems like there is absolutely nothing happening & at others as if everything is happening at once. It was just downright confusing. Sometimes I was really into the plot & invested in the lives of Alden, Douglas, & Sutton. At others I found myself checking to see how many pages were left before I was done with the book! Of a the characters, I found Douglas the most intriguing. He seemed the most real & knowable of the 3 main characters. Yet the ending leaves you wondering how much of it was actually real & who was real. And what was up with awaiting a trial at the end?! The author is talented but the story was bogged down by her attempts to write long, twisting sentences. I doubt very much that I would read anything more by her.
January 27, 2015
I gave this two stars because the historical subject matter was very interesting and well researched. However, the writing style was, at the risk of sounding like my teenagers, annoying. Too many digressions and parenthetical distractions. Too many abstract comparisons that were difficult to follow. About a quarter into Quartet, I just couldn't stick with it any longer.
December 7, 2017
A very ambitious but unsatisfying novel. What this book desperately needed was a good editor. It is overwritten and prolix. The characters, except for one or two, all sound the same and supposedly have the same perceptions and thoughts. For some of the characters, their interior dialogue or reflections seem wholly unlikely and out of character.
Want to read
August 30, 2014I'm so stoked! I entered to win an ARC and I actually won!! It arrived the day before yesterday and I couldn't be more thrilled, it's a beautiful book, and I really can't wait to get started!!
September 14, 2024
I read the first half of this book and then random sections before finishing the last chapter. Then I threw the book in the trash.
What caused me to read as much as I did was the uniqueness of the scenes, descriptions, and plot… until I found myself struggling to discover the plot. As for the characters, I could not decide if there was a thematic reason for them to be such philosophic imbeciles. Also, it felt like the author was pushing an agenda, perhaps Communism, which I’m becoming quite tired of.
What caused me to read as much as I did was the uniqueness of the scenes, descriptions, and plot… until I found myself struggling to discover the plot. As for the characters, I could not decide if there was a thematic reason for them to be such philosophic imbeciles. Also, it felt like the author was pushing an agenda, perhaps Communism, which I’m becoming quite tired of.
October 4, 2020
Quite honestly I'm not sure what to think about this book. So much of it is what the characters are thinking....or what they think other characters are thinking and the ending......well, I'm not sure what it means. So if you read (or have read) this book, please jump in and explain. The quality of the writing is very good but sometimes a little more complicated than what I want in a novel. As you can see, I'm just not sure what to think of this.
May 15, 2018
This book is over 400 pages and when I finished I had no idea how it ended!!!! There were no quotation marks which made it difficult to know when someone was actually talking and the sentences went on and on with commas and dashes used constantly. It might have been a good book, but . . . That's all I can say. Very disappointed!
June 28, 2017
This book is not for me. There were some engaging sections, but it's overall too hard to understand. I didn't care enough about the characters to try to figure out what all those words were getting at.
May 31, 2016
A Philosophical Journey through Troubled Times
It is clear from the start that this is a solidly written book of serious intent. Its almost 500 pages cover a lot of ground from the depths of the Depression to the end of World War Two. Its themes of social justice and the meaning of life are explored on a philosophical level that makes no concessions to popular fiction. Skibsrud's writing is magisterial, at times almost Jamesian. But it is dense. I could have wished for more of the popular touch, for characters I could care for, and for a plot that did more than carry me from scene to scene. On first opening it, I was sure that this would be a five-star book. After a while, though still respecting its intentions, I felt it was at best a four. Now as I look back, wondering what I have spent my time on this past week, I fear I can only give it three.
The novel opens in Washington DC, after the Mall clashes between the Bonus Army (unemployed veterans demanding to be paid their WW1 bonuses) and the police. Sutton Kelly, the young daughter of a prominent judge, is taken to a line-up and asked to identify a man suspected of carrying a bomb. The real culprit is her elder brother Alden, who does indeed have Communist sympathies, but Judge Kelly more or less forces her to select an innocent man instead. This man is Arthur Sinclair; Sutton has come to know his son Douglas in visits to the veterans' camp. Sutton's compliance is the original sin that sets the vast chronicle of the book in motion; at times, it has an almost biblical scope, or at least the intent of one.
Sutton, Alden, and Douglas each have two long chapters among the ensuing eight; the fourth, marked "Interlude," consists entirely of photographs, and the last is a relatively brief (though thematically important) epilogue. Sutton will become a journalist, and eventually be sent to various theaters of WW2. Alden, hiding though not dropping his Communist sympathies, works for the State Department and is trapped in Paris at the outbreak of war. Douglas wanders the country with remnants of the Bonus Army and later finds work with various WPA projects. I wish I could say that the three stories connected up, but they really don't—neither in any significant way with one another, nor even within themselves. Each is a long succession of episodes, involving briefly-important secondary characters who come and go. There are some undoubtedly striking scenes, but the protagonists never come fully to life as people, so there is little thread to string all this together.
To be fair, though, lack of connection may be precisely Skibsrud's point. She makes a lot of the arbitrariness of chance, and how the same events mean quite different things depending on how you look at them. Alden, for example, picks up various pieces of information during the war which he is convinced are codes; to record them, he arranges the words into abstract poems; to be able to decode them later, he makes separate diagrams of the poems; a friend then gets these exhibited in a gallery of abstract art. From quasi-meaning to meaningless abstraction in three easy steps—but by then Alden has become an extreme case. To illustrate both Skibsrud's philosophy and her style, here is a brief passage in which she explores his feeling that we are all hanging helplessly on the turning wheel of fate:
It is clear from the start that this is a solidly written book of serious intent. Its almost 500 pages cover a lot of ground from the depths of the Depression to the end of World War Two. Its themes of social justice and the meaning of life are explored on a philosophical level that makes no concessions to popular fiction. Skibsrud's writing is magisterial, at times almost Jamesian. But it is dense. I could have wished for more of the popular touch, for characters I could care for, and for a plot that did more than carry me from scene to scene. On first opening it, I was sure that this would be a five-star book. After a while, though still respecting its intentions, I felt it was at best a four. Now as I look back, wondering what I have spent my time on this past week, I fear I can only give it three.
The novel opens in Washington DC, after the Mall clashes between the Bonus Army (unemployed veterans demanding to be paid their WW1 bonuses) and the police. Sutton Kelly, the young daughter of a prominent judge, is taken to a line-up and asked to identify a man suspected of carrying a bomb. The real culprit is her elder brother Alden, who does indeed have Communist sympathies, but Judge Kelly more or less forces her to select an innocent man instead. This man is Arthur Sinclair; Sutton has come to know his son Douglas in visits to the veterans' camp. Sutton's compliance is the original sin that sets the vast chronicle of the book in motion; at times, it has an almost biblical scope, or at least the intent of one.
Sutton, Alden, and Douglas each have two long chapters among the ensuing eight; the fourth, marked "Interlude," consists entirely of photographs, and the last is a relatively brief (though thematically important) epilogue. Sutton will become a journalist, and eventually be sent to various theaters of WW2. Alden, hiding though not dropping his Communist sympathies, works for the State Department and is trapped in Paris at the outbreak of war. Douglas wanders the country with remnants of the Bonus Army and later finds work with various WPA projects. I wish I could say that the three stories connected up, but they really don't—neither in any significant way with one another, nor even within themselves. Each is a long succession of episodes, involving briefly-important secondary characters who come and go. There are some undoubtedly striking scenes, but the protagonists never come fully to life as people, so there is little thread to string all this together.
To be fair, though, lack of connection may be precisely Skibsrud's point. She makes a lot of the arbitrariness of chance, and how the same events mean quite different things depending on how you look at them. Alden, for example, picks up various pieces of information during the war which he is convinced are codes; to record them, he arranges the words into abstract poems; to be able to decode them later, he makes separate diagrams of the poems; a friend then gets these exhibited in a gallery of abstract art. From quasi-meaning to meaningless abstraction in three easy steps—but by then Alden has become an extreme case. To illustrate both Skibsrud's philosophy and her style, here is a brief passage in which she explores his feeling that we are all hanging helplessly on the turning wheel of fate:
He was beginning—he continued—to get the distinct impression that everything he touched, every person he loved, would—was bound to; it was only a matter of time—give way, crumble, explode, or otherwise disappear. That despite (and perhaps in direct proportion to) any attempt of his to assert against those greater and more noble ambitions of chance and time some proper force of his own, that more that great wheel—on which those ambitions were hung—turned blithely against him; not as though merely ignorant of his deepest desires and intentions, but as though actually conspiring against him....Skibsrud's title refers to the extraordinary quartet for piano, clarinet, violin, and cello that Olivier Messaien composed in 1941 for four of his fellow inmates in Stalag VIII, a German POW camp. It is indeed an amazing story, meticulously researched by Rebecca Rishkin in her 2003 study, For the End of Time; hers is one of many sources cited by Skibsrud in her own extensive bibliography. We are told that her novel is structured after Messaien's work, but other than the fact that both have eight chapters or movements, the fourth of which is an Interlude, I don't see it. Besides which, the novel has only three leading players, not four. Skibsrud also has to strain to get the Quartet into the plot at all; Alden meets a poet in Paris who just happens to have been in the same hut as the composer, and thus attended the premiere. It is not a bad passage, actually, even though reported third-hand. But I think back to Richard Powers' luminous evocation of the same event in his recent Orfeo, and recognize the alchemy of a true novelist. It is missing here.
April 6, 2018
Won this for review. Could not get into the book and had to DNF around 50 pages.
April 17, 2020
Actually not finished. Great premise but I didn't care for the writing style.
September 20, 2021
Disappointed. I wanted to like this book but I can’t put myself through finishing it. Back to the library it goes.
December 2, 2014
Quartet for the End of Time.
I won Johanna Skibsrud's Quartet for the End of Time in a GoodReads GiveAway. I received a large trade-paperback, smartly illustrated with a timeless photograph suggestive of the period and 468 pages of clear, medium-sized font, including two-dozen photos with index and sources.
Johanna Skibsrud's Quartet for the End of Time is inspired - as told by the author in the forward - by the French Composer Olivier Messiaen's composition of music by the same name. Intrigued by the origin back-story of the composition and inspired to accomplish a similarly complex tapestry of consonance and dissonance for the literary world, Johanna Skibsrud sets her sites eyebrow-raisingly high in her desire to create a similarly cohesive while extraneous composition in book form.
Skibsrud's Quartet mirrors Messiaen's in that it is comprised of 8 sections and moves across several distinct voices as it follows four characters across a story-arch that will take the reader from the Bonus Army March on Washington and the ensuing riots of 1932 to the lead up and eruption of World War II, and into the POW camp and unlikely but magical story of the composition of Quartet for the End of Time.
Skibsrud's Quartet is pause-inducing in ambition, meticulous in plot and inspiring in accomplishment. It is fascinating in its observation of the less-popularly known era of the run-up to World War II, and revealing in detail and historical context.
It is also laborious to read. Quartet is written in a style of prose absent of quotation marks or layout for dialog, relying heavily on italics and bolds and loads of commas and phrases. Reading Quartet becomes a cognitive chore and is often interrupted by stopping and rereading to make sure you got the phrasing right in your head. The narrative often fails to roll smoothly across the voicing, adding effort to the task of keeping it all straight along an epically-arching storyline.
Quartet for the End of Time is not for the faint-of-heart or the under-appreciative of education and culture. Much like its conception and execution, Quartet requires a degree of ambition to consume and desire to appreciate. But for readers that seek such treasure, Quartet is uniquely rewarding.
I won Johanna Skibsrud's Quartet for the End of Time in a GoodReads GiveAway. I received a large trade-paperback, smartly illustrated with a timeless photograph suggestive of the period and 468 pages of clear, medium-sized font, including two-dozen photos with index and sources.
Johanna Skibsrud's Quartet for the End of Time is inspired - as told by the author in the forward - by the French Composer Olivier Messiaen's composition of music by the same name. Intrigued by the origin back-story of the composition and inspired to accomplish a similarly complex tapestry of consonance and dissonance for the literary world, Johanna Skibsrud sets her sites eyebrow-raisingly high in her desire to create a similarly cohesive while extraneous composition in book form.
Skibsrud's Quartet mirrors Messiaen's in that it is comprised of 8 sections and moves across several distinct voices as it follows four characters across a story-arch that will take the reader from the Bonus Army March on Washington and the ensuing riots of 1932 to the lead up and eruption of World War II, and into the POW camp and unlikely but magical story of the composition of Quartet for the End of Time.
Skibsrud's Quartet is pause-inducing in ambition, meticulous in plot and inspiring in accomplishment. It is fascinating in its observation of the less-popularly known era of the run-up to World War II, and revealing in detail and historical context.
It is also laborious to read. Quartet is written in a style of prose absent of quotation marks or layout for dialog, relying heavily on italics and bolds and loads of commas and phrases. Reading Quartet becomes a cognitive chore and is often interrupted by stopping and rereading to make sure you got the phrasing right in your head. The narrative often fails to roll smoothly across the voicing, adding effort to the task of keeping it all straight along an epically-arching storyline.
Quartet for the End of Time is not for the faint-of-heart or the under-appreciative of education and culture. Much like its conception and execution, Quartet requires a degree of ambition to consume and desire to appreciate. But for readers that seek such treasure, Quartet is uniquely rewarding.
October 7, 2015
This is a novel with remarkable breadth and a wide set of story lines. This is both its strength and its challenge.
This book can be read as a commentary on the left in America. The Bonus Army, a seldom-remembered 1930s outpouring of radical grass-roots action by World War One veterans who marched to Washington to demand payment for the "Bonus Coupons" they were given after the war, was at the heart of left wing responses to the Great Depression. The Communist party grew on these roots, despite the purges Stalin was undertaking in Russia. And the New Deal Roosevelt administration, advanced reforms but resisted meeting Bonus Army demands.
The novel's three main characters interact in this charged context. Alden, the son of a conservative politician, gets caught up in supporting the Army, drifts into working as a Communist spy for Russia, then is saved by his father when he was about to be charged and moves into exile in France. His sister Sutton takes a very different path, becoming a journalist, trying to write about the Bonus Army hopes and then writing from overseas during World War Two. Meanwhile, Douglas, the son of one of the veterans, becomes a young man trying to cope with the harsh Depression world for poorer people.
There are some vivid and powerful parts of the long pageant that Skipsrud plays out. The experience of Douglas in the Florida Keys workers' corp camp hit by a hurricane is particularly devastating. The work of Sutton in Britain during the war is also fascinating including the descriptions of occult groups that became popular. Alden's time in France is less compelling but includes insights into the French losses in the early part of the war.
Yet this is a book that is more about this history rather than having a story to tell. A dramatic betrayal takes place at the heart of the plot. But the aftermath of that somehow gets lost in the many details and interesting insights that the book then explores. The result is a necessary exploration of a time and a movement too much forgotten, but a novel that suffers from limited narrative power.
This book can be read as a commentary on the left in America. The Bonus Army, a seldom-remembered 1930s outpouring of radical grass-roots action by World War One veterans who marched to Washington to demand payment for the "Bonus Coupons" they were given after the war, was at the heart of left wing responses to the Great Depression. The Communist party grew on these roots, despite the purges Stalin was undertaking in Russia. And the New Deal Roosevelt administration, advanced reforms but resisted meeting Bonus Army demands.
The novel's three main characters interact in this charged context. Alden, the son of a conservative politician, gets caught up in supporting the Army, drifts into working as a Communist spy for Russia, then is saved by his father when he was about to be charged and moves into exile in France. His sister Sutton takes a very different path, becoming a journalist, trying to write about the Bonus Army hopes and then writing from overseas during World War Two. Meanwhile, Douglas, the son of one of the veterans, becomes a young man trying to cope with the harsh Depression world for poorer people.
There are some vivid and powerful parts of the long pageant that Skipsrud plays out. The experience of Douglas in the Florida Keys workers' corp camp hit by a hurricane is particularly devastating. The work of Sutton in Britain during the war is also fascinating including the descriptions of occult groups that became popular. Alden's time in France is less compelling but includes insights into the French losses in the early part of the war.
Yet this is a book that is more about this history rather than having a story to tell. A dramatic betrayal takes place at the heart of the plot. But the aftermath of that somehow gets lost in the many details and interesting insights that the book then explores. The result is a necessary exploration of a time and a movement too much forgotten, but a novel that suffers from limited narrative power.
June 3, 2015
Skibsrud's writing is elegant and original in this tale about consequences of one's actions that takes place between the Depression and World War II. I've only read one other book about the Bonus War (World War I vets trying to get their due), and this author knows her material/time period.
Because the book explores deep philosophical themes and is written without quotation marks (and almost no dialogue) I found it dense and slow-going. I loved what I was learning, but had a hard time connecting with an of the characters.
Here's a sample from p.345 in an ARC to show both Skibsrud's beautiful words and way of viewing the world, and her style. ALDEN discovers a partially-written novel in EMMETT, a dead friend's belongings:
Upon closer examination, however, he saw that it was in fact the draft of a novel, based loosely on the events of Emmett's real life. It was Alden's own appearance in these pages that had caused him, at first, to mistake the work as a personal diary. But because he could not recall the events described or the words that either pertained to or were ascribed to him--except for the telltale entrance of key elements of his own story--those he had shared with Emmett...he was forced to reassess...
What a strange feeling came over him then, as he transformed suddenly into an unknowable character before his own eyes--and on account only of the slight pressure of his dead friend's pen!...That all of the material of his own life, which he so painfully had unburdened, could be disassembled and arranged to make what even he could see would have been the strangest of fictions. That even the smallest details of himself could have been altered in an imaginable way!
Because the book explores deep philosophical themes and is written without quotation marks (and almost no dialogue) I found it dense and slow-going. I loved what I was learning, but had a hard time connecting with an of the characters.
Here's a sample from p.345 in an ARC to show both Skibsrud's beautiful words and way of viewing the world, and her style. ALDEN discovers a partially-written novel in EMMETT, a dead friend's belongings:
Upon closer examination, however, he saw that it was in fact the draft of a novel, based loosely on the events of Emmett's real life. It was Alden's own appearance in these pages that had caused him, at first, to mistake the work as a personal diary. But because he could not recall the events described or the words that either pertained to or were ascribed to him--except for the telltale entrance of key elements of his own story--those he had shared with Emmett...he was forced to reassess...
What a strange feeling came over him then, as he transformed suddenly into an unknowable character before his own eyes--and on account only of the slight pressure of his dead friend's pen!...That all of the material of his own life, which he so painfully had unburdened, could be disassembled and arranged to make what even he could see would have been the strangest of fictions. That even the smallest details of himself could have been altered in an imaginable way!
December 31, 2014
Quartet for the End of Time is a dense philosophical work that asks much of the reader, however offers considerable reward. From the musical composition the novel is named after, to the troubled times during which the book is set, to the disjointed and choppy view of the lives of the "main" characters, the entire novel revolves around the chaotic and furious changes that define life. Philosophical questions about the importance or insignificance of single individuals or their choices, the potential for multiple meanings in every situation, as well as the meaning of life and art are all addressed.
When I first started the novel, I was certain it would be a five-star book --- a conviction I maintained throughout most of the book. Throughout the last quarter of the book, I woffled between it being a 4 star book or a 2 star book. After reflection, and upon trying to write this review, I've decided upon 4 stars. It was upon writing this, that I realized that the parts in the last quarter of the book that I found frustrating and grinding, were appropriate and important to my full appreciation of the book. These difficult pieces of the book reflect yet another theme --- the necessity of negative space. Just as in music, rhythm is dictated not by sound but by silence, I now think that the real impact of the book is the balance between the narrative of the events and the philosophical declarations of the characters. Now, I am deeply curious to know what the author believes the underlying messaage of the book to be.
When I first started the novel, I was certain it would be a five-star book --- a conviction I maintained throughout most of the book. Throughout the last quarter of the book, I woffled between it being a 4 star book or a 2 star book. After reflection, and upon trying to write this review, I've decided upon 4 stars. It was upon writing this, that I realized that the parts in the last quarter of the book that I found frustrating and grinding, were appropriate and important to my full appreciation of the book. These difficult pieces of the book reflect yet another theme --- the necessity of negative space. Just as in music, rhythm is dictated not by sound but by silence, I now think that the real impact of the book is the balance between the narrative of the events and the philosophical declarations of the characters. Now, I am deeply curious to know what the author believes the underlying messaage of the book to be.
July 15, 2015
I tried to read this book twice and honestly couldn't manage to finish it. The setting was what caused me to pick it up and the award-winning author as well, but the writing hit me as extremely wooden and I couldn't manage to relate to a single character. They just weren't developed enough for me. On my first attempt at reading this, I made it to page 54, still not having a clue as to what any of the characters looked like or their ages or what they were really about. The main event of the beginning of the book (The 1930's Bonus Army riots) isn't explained at all, and since I knew nothing about it, I did my own research. While I enjoy researching topics I learn about during my historic fiction forays, I typically depend on the author to do a cursory job of setting the foundation to at least frame the plot and keep me interested. This author couldn't manage this. In fact, the writing was so lackluster, I thought I might be reading a Wikipedia entry. On my 2nd try, I made it to page 174 and then I just gave up. Perhaps some dialogue would have helped move things along and provided some depth to the characters?
November 19, 2015
I would have to agree with several other reviewers that Sutton was the easiest character to read. There were many overall themes to the book, but their were times when it felt like the author was lecturing on philosophy through the characters' internal dialogue.
There were some excruciating scenes showing the loss of happiness, friends, loves, the loss of security, and loss of identity. The section on Messian writing the Quartet was my favorite part of the book- it was the only section of hope in the whole book. Music symbolizing the beauty in despair and eternity in finiteness themes. It stood out in stark contrast to the other stories surrounding it. She did weave this eternity them through Alden's story, but I think it would have been more interesting to weave the beauty in the despair theme also through the other characters. As it is, they all live relentlessly on with their daily lives in history. I would have thought that Eternity in a single beat would have made the other characters lives more meaningful.
Lots to think about with this book. It does not finish with ideas closed up, and I do like that about this book.
There were some excruciating scenes showing the loss of happiness, friends, loves, the loss of security, and loss of identity. The section on Messian writing the Quartet was my favorite part of the book- it was the only section of hope in the whole book. Music symbolizing the beauty in despair and eternity in finiteness themes. It stood out in stark contrast to the other stories surrounding it. She did weave this eternity them through Alden's story, but I think it would have been more interesting to weave the beauty in the despair theme also through the other characters. As it is, they all live relentlessly on with their daily lives in history. I would have thought that Eternity in a single beat would have made the other characters lives more meaningful.
Lots to think about with this book. It does not finish with ideas closed up, and I do like that about this book.
September 24, 2014
2.5 stars
I received this book as a First Reads Giveaway.
It's a tough review to write - it's a rather dense and complicated read. I think the author was trying to go into depth of character and situation much in the way of the classics (think Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, &c.) ...but it falls flat. Instead, the rambling prose - while intellectual and in its own rite beautiful - ends up taking away from the plot line instead of adding to it. Even the setting (30's and 40's USA) detracts from the style, as it is simply too incongruous.
Overall I found there to be too much detail without enough substance; the characters do not interact much with each other or with the reader; I suspect they'll be quickly forgotten. The level of historical detail must have required significant research, but again it's just too much. The gap between the first and second parts is too jarring; the ~30 pages of photographs would be more fitting to a non-fiction genre.
As always I'm grateful to receive an advanced review copy, but this one left me cold.
I received this book as a First Reads Giveaway.
It's a tough review to write - it's a rather dense and complicated read. I think the author was trying to go into depth of character and situation much in the way of the classics (think Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, &c.) ...but it falls flat. Instead, the rambling prose - while intellectual and in its own rite beautiful - ends up taking away from the plot line instead of adding to it. Even the setting (30's and 40's USA) detracts from the style, as it is simply too incongruous.
Overall I found there to be too much detail without enough substance; the characters do not interact much with each other or with the reader; I suspect they'll be quickly forgotten. The level of historical detail must have required significant research, but again it's just too much. The gap between the first and second parts is too jarring; the ~30 pages of photographs would be more fitting to a non-fiction genre.
As always I'm grateful to receive an advanced review copy, but this one left me cold.
October 16, 2014
Penguin Exclusive Win Uncorrected and Unpublished Proof
Looking back at the year 1932 as distrust spreads across the USA and the world. The lack of jobs and food as poverty strikes all across America even to veterans of war.
We witness the struggles of three people as they deal with the landscape of the time. Their journey across the land and the people they encounter and the people they meet along the way and their story.
There is an impoverished veteran travelling with his son, Arthur and Douglas Sinclair as they travel from Kansas to join the march. They encounter the rebellious children of a judge. Aiden and Sutton Kelly as they meet at the march which will change their lives as Arthur disappears after is falsely accused for conspiracy.
We are swept into these young adults as they experience the scenery of the time where you cannot trust anyone. A journey through time that takes us on a rollercoaster ride.
Looking back at the year 1932 as distrust spreads across the USA and the world. The lack of jobs and food as poverty strikes all across America even to veterans of war.
We witness the struggles of three people as they deal with the landscape of the time. Their journey across the land and the people they encounter and the people they meet along the way and their story.
There is an impoverished veteran travelling with his son, Arthur and Douglas Sinclair as they travel from Kansas to join the march. They encounter the rebellious children of a judge. Aiden and Sutton Kelly as they meet at the march which will change their lives as Arthur disappears after is falsely accused for conspiracy.
We are swept into these young adults as they experience the scenery of the time where you cannot trust anyone. A journey through time that takes us on a rollercoaster ride.
abandoned
January 19, 2015 The novel takes us on an unforgettable journey beginning during the 1930s Bonus Army riots, when World War I veteran Arthur Sinclair is falsely accused of conspiracy and then disappears. His absence will haunt his son, Douglas, as well as Alden and Sutton Kelly, the children of a powerful U.S. congressman, as they experience each in different ways the dynamic political social changes that took place leading up to and during World War II. From the New Deal projects through which Douglas, newly fatherless, makes his living to Sutton s work as a journalist, to Alden s life as a code breaker and a spy, each character is haunted by the past and is searching for love, hope, and redemption in a world torn apart by chaos and war.
Well - this just wasn't for me. I found the storyline tedious; I especially disliked the font. That may not be reason enough to put the book down, but it distracted me.
Well - this just wasn't for me. I found the storyline tedious; I especially disliked the font. That may not be reason enough to put the book down, but it distracted me.
December 31, 2014
I received this book free as a goodreads first read. I found the content and story line interesting but at times the book was a difficult read. I usually read a book within a few days to a week, but this one took me a long time. The style reads very much like the classics. the story was told from the points of view of various different characters but I felt the style could have differed more for the characters. They all seemed to think the same way from a boy brought up in essentially a 2 room shack who had never ventured farther than his father's property before to the children of a judge born to higher society.
At times I wondered at where the author was going and it wasnt until the end of the chapter that I understood. I found many parts to be a little too vague and skipped over some of the more politically centred parts but overall found it a fairly enjoyable read.
At times I wondered at where the author was going and it wasnt until the end of the chapter that I understood. I found many parts to be a little too vague and skipped over some of the more politically centred parts but overall found it a fairly enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews