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Sad Strains of a Gay Waltz
An isolated German mathematician confronting a debilitating illness advertises to adopt a boy and finds himself undergoing a hilarious, agonizing education at the hands of an impoverished Russian refugee and his sloppy, lively mother
- GenresFiction
305 pages
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Irene Dische
37 books13 followersIrene Dische is an American writer, born and raised in the Washington Heights district of New York City.
She has studied Literature and Anthropology on the Harvard University. She was a freelance journalist (The New Yorker, The Nation). In the early 1980s, Dische moved to Berlin, Germany, and now she devides her time between Berlin and Rhinebeck, New York. A lot of her work is written in English, but often first published in German.
Irene Dische ist eine Amerikanisch, geboren und aufgewachsen in Washington Heights, New York City.
Sie hat Literatur und Anthropologie studiert an der Harvard University . Sie war freelance journalistin (The New Yorker, The Nation). In den frühen 1980er Jahren zog sie nach Berlin, Deutschland, und jetzt lebt sie abwechselnd in Berlin und in Rhinebeck, New York. Viele ihrer Werke sind in englischer Sprache verfasst, aber zuerst in deutscher Sprache herausgegeben.
She has studied Literature and Anthropology on the Harvard University. She was a freelance journalist (The New Yorker, The Nation). In the early 1980s, Dische moved to Berlin, Germany, and now she devides her time between Berlin and Rhinebeck, New York. A lot of her work is written in English, but often first published in German.
Irene Dische ist eine Amerikanisch, geboren und aufgewachsen in Washington Heights, New York City.
Sie hat Literatur und Anthropologie studiert an der Harvard University . Sie war freelance journalistin (The New Yorker, The Nation). In den frühen 1980er Jahren zog sie nach Berlin, Deutschland, und jetzt lebt sie abwechselnd in Berlin und in Rhinebeck, New York. Viele ihrer Werke sind in englischer Sprache verfasst, aber zuerst in deutscher Sprache herausgegeben.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 19, 2021
Rather than the love story it is billed to be, it seems to me that Sad Strains of a Gay Waltz is truly about solitude and the difficulties human beings encounter in making meaningful contact with each other.
The story, which is divided in four parts and 33 chapters, all fronted with a very short summary, like an 18th century novel, is filled of missed or failing relationships. The main protagonist himself, Prof. Dr Benedikt August Anton Cecil August Count Waller von Wallerstein, to give him is full name, is, for most of the book, mentally, if not physically cut off from human society, even as he clumsily tries to reenter it after years of effective isolation.
Waller is a "gay" mathematical physicist, who, although this is never spelled out, appears to be on the autistic spectrum while suffering from prosopagnosia. He is also affected by a mystery terminal illness, which could possibly be AIDS, although, again, that's not specified.
On the minor subject of his sexuality, and despite the fact that the only sexual relations of his that we are told about are with a man, it seems that Waller should either be described as bisexual or probably much more accurately as asexual, although that possibly wasn't a concept or category readily available in the early 90s when the book was written. Gay, or homosexual. as he is referred to in the book, certainly don't seem to represent him accurately (hence my use of the quotation marks above).
Waller's work is dedicated to imaginary atomic particles, the solitrons, which, Waller claims are not affected by collisions with other solitrons. In page 201, however, we learn that "his theory had been disproved by pictures, fact making a farce of theory. The solitrons collided, and then they either disappeared, well, he knew about that, or - they changed. They merged, and did not part again, they became different, more elaborate." Those made-up solitrons are clearly a metaphor for Waller and the ideas Dische seeks to develop with the book.
Another clue to Dische's intentions, and a further layer to the book, allegorical this time, lies in the German reunification, that serves as its background, and parallels the uneasy relationship between Waller, the haughty German aristocrat scientist, and Marja Golubka, the unsophisticated Russian migrant. Waller himself, an unfeeling island of a man, can be seen as an allegory of humankind and its struggle with its ultimate condition of innate aloneness.
Speaking as a bilingual migrant myself, I feel that Dische had possibly spent too much time in Germany and is forgetting her native English when she wrote Sad Strains. The language is often awkward and the syntax is at times horrendous. There are also, suddenly it seemed, many typos near the end of the book. All points that suggest the need for a good editor (as is, alas, so often the case).
Perhaps in an attempt to lighten what is otherwise a bit of a dirge, Dische imbues her writing with an unrelenting sense of absurdity, sometimes sardonic but more generally simply nonsensical. She uses non sequiturs and abrupt sentences that don't quite flow, adding to the disjointed quality of her narrative. Randomly, Chapter 22 (2/3 of the book) suddenly and shortly introduces a magical realism element to the book in the form of a cameo by Albert Einstein's spirit/ghost.
Finally and unfortunately, where they should perhaps have provided some sort of shaky anchor, Dirsche's characters too often feel inconsistent. This is particularly evident in Waller. The strange parameters of behaviour created both by Dirsche imagination and her choice of main character meant that I never really had a sense of knowing where the book was going which proved fatally alienating for me. It is perhaps not such a bad thing on reflection, considering what it is about, but something most unpleasant that didn't in the end serve the book well.
Despite giving a drab and sombre general outlook to her story, Dische ultimately offers fledgling redemption and hope to her non-hero and to the reader, but the entropic nature of her writing stretches belief so much and so often as to make the whole exercise appear futile. It sort of eventually makes sense in the end, but by then it's too late. The book left me cold and detached, other than perhaps for a feeling of relief at having finally finished it.
The story, which is divided in four parts and 33 chapters, all fronted with a very short summary, like an 18th century novel, is filled of missed or failing relationships. The main protagonist himself, Prof. Dr Benedikt August Anton Cecil August Count Waller von Wallerstein, to give him is full name, is, for most of the book, mentally, if not physically cut off from human society, even as he clumsily tries to reenter it after years of effective isolation.
Waller is a "gay" mathematical physicist, who, although this is never spelled out, appears to be on the autistic spectrum while suffering from prosopagnosia. He is also affected by a mystery terminal illness, which could possibly be AIDS, although, again, that's not specified.
On the minor subject of his sexuality, and despite the fact that the only sexual relations of his that we are told about are with a man, it seems that Waller should either be described as bisexual or probably much more accurately as asexual, although that possibly wasn't a concept or category readily available in the early 90s when the book was written. Gay, or homosexual. as he is referred to in the book, certainly don't seem to represent him accurately (hence my use of the quotation marks above).
Waller's work is dedicated to imaginary atomic particles, the solitrons, which, Waller claims are not affected by collisions with other solitrons. In page 201, however, we learn that "his theory had been disproved by pictures, fact making a farce of theory. The solitrons collided, and then they either disappeared, well, he knew about that, or - they changed. They merged, and did not part again, they became different, more elaborate." Those made-up solitrons are clearly a metaphor for Waller and the ideas Dische seeks to develop with the book.
Another clue to Dische's intentions, and a further layer to the book, allegorical this time, lies in the German reunification, that serves as its background, and parallels the uneasy relationship between Waller, the haughty German aristocrat scientist, and Marja Golubka, the unsophisticated Russian migrant. Waller himself, an unfeeling island of a man, can be seen as an allegory of humankind and its struggle with its ultimate condition of innate aloneness.
Speaking as a bilingual migrant myself, I feel that Dische had possibly spent too much time in Germany and is forgetting her native English when she wrote Sad Strains. The language is often awkward and the syntax is at times horrendous. There are also, suddenly it seemed, many typos near the end of the book. All points that suggest the need for a good editor (as is, alas, so often the case).
Perhaps in an attempt to lighten what is otherwise a bit of a dirge, Dische imbues her writing with an unrelenting sense of absurdity, sometimes sardonic but more generally simply nonsensical. She uses non sequiturs and abrupt sentences that don't quite flow, adding to the disjointed quality of her narrative. Randomly, Chapter 22 (2/3 of the book) suddenly and shortly introduces a magical realism element to the book in the form of a cameo by Albert Einstein's spirit/ghost.
Finally and unfortunately, where they should perhaps have provided some sort of shaky anchor, Dirsche's characters too often feel inconsistent. This is particularly evident in Waller. The strange parameters of behaviour created both by Dirsche imagination and her choice of main character meant that I never really had a sense of knowing where the book was going which proved fatally alienating for me. It is perhaps not such a bad thing on reflection, considering what it is about, but something most unpleasant that didn't in the end serve the book well.
Despite giving a drab and sombre general outlook to her story, Dische ultimately offers fledgling redemption and hope to her non-hero and to the reader, but the entropic nature of her writing stretches belief so much and so often as to make the whole exercise appear futile. It sort of eventually makes sense in the end, but by then it's too late. The book left me cold and detached, other than perhaps for a feeling of relief at having finally finished it.
January 17, 2020
Odio cuando un libro es una excusa de forma y no de contenido. Ha sido una lectura tediosa y verdaderamente acabo son tener una sensación real de entender a los personajes. Por lo menos hay ciertos pasajes muy bien descritos, pero no ha sido para mi una lectura provechosa.
November 22, 2024
A strange book, with strange characters none of which did appeal to me. The various happenings in the various chapters could have been completely different and I would not have noticed. The ending, however, was quite satisfactory.
January 3, 2008
I think what prevented me from enjoying this book as much as I'd expected (and maybe this was the point) was that I felt constantly thrown off by it. Even though it takes place in the not-too-distant past, I had to frequently remind myself of that. I still haven't been able to figure out why, but it reminded me of The House of the Seven Gables. I'm a fan of Hawthorne's work, so that doesn't explain how I felt about this novel. I think that maybe part of the disconnect I felt results from the main character: you're not supposed to connect with him. Benedikt Waller is an eccentric (clueless, really) mathematician who comes from an old, formerly powerful family. Although his life has focused upon his work, he decides to adopt a child when he discovers that he has a terminal illness. This opens him up to an entirely new set of experiences. The novel focuses primarily on Waller's thoughts and how he tries to process emotion, illness, the body, and life itself through logic, ultimately realizing that logic is not an accurate gauge of human experience. Adding another layer to this novel is the fact that the story is allegorical: its events are intertwined with Germany's re-unification. Even though I can't quite articulate how I feel or even what I'm supposed to think about this novel, I'd still recommend it.
April 9, 2016
I wavered between not picking this book up for a week and then being engrossed in it for another week. It kept me off kilter the whole time. I never quite knew what was going to happen or even what was happening in the moment, but the world remained intriguing. The characters were off putting and distant, but I wanted to see what they would do. Ultimately I enjoyed it, although I don't know who I would recommend it to.
January 23, 2015
This novel was interesting, but hard to digest. For 33 variations, I like Beethoven better. Dische could have made her points even better with less text. Nevertheless, the 'interesting' comes first. JM
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews