In Pursuit of a Vanishing Star: A Novel

by Gustaf Sobin

Drawing on the life of Greta Garbo, Gustaf Sobin spins a masterful tale about the enigmatic nature of idolatry. Dying scriptwriter Philip Nilson spends his last days writing about a forgotten but critical moment in the life of Greta Garbo. He tracks that most elusive of film stars to an episode in Constantinople in 1924, where, under the tutelage of impresario Mauritz Stiller, Garbo emerges as one of the dominant icons of the twentieth century. Enthralled by the story, Nilson awakens to the memory of a long-forgotten first love that, he discovers, has held him in its grip for the better part of his life. This glowing novel is both a contemporary narrative celebrating a glorious moment in the history of cinema and an allegory touching upon the very meaning of existence.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I adore Greta Garbo, which I guess is why I picked this up... but I was unimpressed with the writing.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This book glitters as much as its main character seemed to.

[James Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

In writing about a reclusive actress who's apparently Greta Garbo, Sobin has given us another of those novels about stardom in the early days of film. It's about idolatry, with the actress emblematic of Garbo seen as goddess, those who attend and handle her as acolytes. And in this way it's more about the perception of those who create and nurse those beautiful and lofty enough to be supported in that olympian fashion. There are scenes in which the goddess is prepared and cared for, scenes in which some who attend her are assigned a specific duty in enhancing her image, both on screen and off. The trouble is that it's a hollow devotion. It's such a cold and self-absorbed attention to the goddess that it becomes steeped in death rather than celebration. There's a powerful section of the novel in which the director, Stiller, looks after Garbo following a day of filming on the streets of Constantinople. While he does her hair, they gaze, rapt but emotionless, at their reflections in the mirror. Twins or doppelgangers or mirror images crowd the novel. It's only through them that these characters can find the life they seek. Meaning they find it in themselves, essentially. Philip Nilson is writing a screenplay about Garbo, but he's reminded of his obsession for a young woman long gone from his life. His relation to the lost love mirrors the director's consuming passion for Garbo and for everything supporting her image on the screen. As much as I liked the structuring and central conceit of the novel, the breathless, overcharged language blighted it. I suppose it's meant to suggest Nilson's comfort with a continental milieu, and, in fact, at times it reads as Nabokovian. But the novel lacks the rich characterizations, moral depth, and tangled games of a Nabokov novel so that what we're left with is a very direct narrative told in studied and stilted prose which most often shows Sobin's clumsy two step rather than Nabokov's elegant waltz.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nur eines hält den todkranken Drehbuchautor Phil noch am Leben: die Arbeit an seinem letzten Drehbuch und die damit verbundene Suche nach dem „magischen Moment“, als aus einer unbekannten kleinen schwedischen Schauspielerin „die Göttliche“ wurde – Greta Garbo, deren Namen in diesem Roman nicht einmal erwähnt wird. Und so macht sich Phil auf eine letzte Reise an einen Schweizer See, wo er mit Hilfe des letzten noch lebenden Zeugen die Ereignisse bei den Dreharbeiten zu einem nie fertig gestellten Film aus dem Jahre 1924 in Konstantinopel zu rekonstruieren.

Gekonnt verwebt Sobin Fiktion und Wirklichkeit. Er lässt reale Personen auf fiktive treffen und zeichnet dabei das Bild von Menschen, die ständig auf der Flucht vor sich selbst sind. Und die beherrschende Person, die ihr eigenes Selbst aufgibt, um auf der Leinwand alles zu sein, was andere in ihr sehen wollen, ist die mystische Figur der umwerfend schönen Leinwandgöttin.

Die poetische Sprache, die sinnlichen Beschreibungen ziehen den Leser beinahe magisch in den Bann, sodass man dieses kleine, stille, unscheinbare Buch nicht mehr aus der Hand legen will. Man kann die beschriebenen Szenen direkt vor Augen sehen und die Besessenheit, mit der Phil trotz aller Schmerzen an seinem Werk arbeitet, absolut nachfühlen.

Mein Fazit: Ein poetischer, dichter Roman, wie ein Hollywoodfilm aus vergangenen Tagen.

[Matt Kuhns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent short novel. Almost too short; the whole thing has a bit of a sketch quality and one or two subplots seem rather incomplete; this could easily have been spun out to four or five times its length by an Elizabeth Kostova, for example.

But in this case, the ellipticism works, in part because the entire story is written with, and around the idea of, layered, symbolic, ethereal things, there but not quite there. The plot such as it is involves a terminally ill screenwriter finishing a last work about Greta Garbo, seeking the key to the famously enigmatic icon by retracing a series of events in her early career. And, in addition to thoroughly enjoying the story, I couldn’t help admiring Sobin for what seems like a rather clever idea even if he never wrote the story as anything but the story in the novel: if one should have a brilliant film concept which will never be produced, one could do far worse than folding it into a meta-narrative novel. Especially one so memorable as this.