Gerontius by James Hamilton-Paterson

Gerontius Reviews

• 
  Philippe

  Marvelous story about the ageing Edward Elgar who's trying to recapture his muse in composing his elusive Third Symphony. The opening chapters of the book are unforgettable.
  
  Update 2020: upon rereading the novel has lost nothing of its power. It's a splendidly narrated story about the mourning psyche. Mourning for the loss of creative powers, of a life companion, of countless young men in a senseless war, of a whole world and its values. I've read much by Hamilton-Paterson since, but I haven't found anything that transcends Gerontius in depth and humanity.
• 
  Bettie

  
  Bettie's Books
  
  The rating, any status updates, and those bookshelves, indicate my feelings for this book.
  
  
  
• 
  Eleanor

  I loved this book. I am not sure how interesting it would be for someone with no interest in so-called "classical" music, with its references to Elgar's music and that of other composers. But as a study of a man who has almost lost his musical creativity, and has lived through the Great War and seen it shatter his world, it is very moving indeed.
  
  Hamilton-Paterson's writing is beautiful. Here is a description of night falling on the Amazon:
  
  It is the moment between dusk and dark when the forest stops breathing in and prepares for its night-long exhalation. With the vanishing of sunset's colour the water slides around the river bend like liquid slate, its surface scrawled faintly with poolings and involutions. The first fireflies blink over the mud among the rot and tangle at the jungle's edge. At the last moment of visibility a shadow comes and goes on the water although the air above seems to hold nothing more substantial than moths and midges - certainly nothing which could draw beneath it the outline of jagged wings. This slow flap as of membranes supporting a most ancient thing crabs its way upstream at an angle and is lost almost as soon as the eye thinks to have seen its shadow. A strange cry comes from invisible mid-river and at once a thousand frogs burst into steady unison.
• 
  Patrick Gibson

  I went on an Elgar jag in college. While my friends were toking and poking to Iron Maiden (or Simon & Garfunkel for the less adventurous), I chose the higher musical road of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. And the adagio from Bruckers 8th (one of the most sensual/sexual pieces ever written). For some reason (probably because the Cello Concerto is so amazing) I got it into my head to collect every Elgar opus number on CD. That would be impossible in the States, but since I was a hop away from Toronto (in the days you could drive back and forth across the border as easy as running to the 7/11) with their enlightened record stores this became a worthy doable goal. I completed the task in under a year and today when people peruse my CD’s I hear mental grinding when they get to the Elgar shelves. Oh well.
  
  There are only a half dozen Elgar opus numbers played the concert halls today but trust me on this—there is a massive amount of works deserving to be heard. One of the double disc sets was what appeared to me a throwback to the great oratorio days of Handel called ‘The Dream of Gerontius.’ I fell in love immediately. It is a massive choral work, a little like the fever dream it is based on. Trust me again—it is wonderful.
  
  The book ‘Gerontius’ has nothing to do with the music. The conceit would be: here are the imagined dreams of Elgar during his mysterious trip up the Amazon. The trip was real – and atypical for a Victorian composer who was completely staid in his home life. It’s a great idea. But esoteric to the point of boredom. Sometimes ‘literature’ can be dull. I’ll keep the music active and shelve the book.
  
• 
  Charles

  What a wonderful book this is, generous, thoughtful, unsentimental in its attitude towards creativity and value. It tells the story of a trip to the Amazon made by Elgar when he was 63, and if that puts you off, you'll miss an exceptionally stimulating read. The only reason I haven't give it five stars is that it's not quite as good as the same author's
  Loving Monsters
  
• 
  LS

  I'm reading this now after enjoying the Fernet Branca trilogy so much. Completely different voice in this superb novel of 1923 journey by composer Elgar to Amazon River/Brazil. The descriptions reminded me of Ann Patchett's STATE OF WONDER, but GERONTIUS is more masterful.
• 
  Lyn

  Although this is a work of fiction, it feels well researched and presents Elgar in an interesting and believable way. As much as anything it is a book about ageing, the decline of passionate interest and curiosity and the melancholy business of looking back. I was fascinated by the musing on “longing “ - an unsettling feeling that can accompany us throughout life, a yearning for something we cannot discern.
  I have been inspired to listen to Elgar’s music with different ears. The book suggests that British patriotism was certainly not his intention and his inspiration came from the great German composers, especially Schumann.
  An interesting read.
• 
  Mark

  I can’t quite make up my mind whether or not one needs to be an Elgar buff to enjoy this. On balance, perhaps not. It is a nicely drawn shapshot of the English of a certain class and era abroad. It opened up a culture of travel that I barely knew existed: board a ship in Liverpool and cross the Atlantic before navigating miles up the Amazon inland to Manaus. Remarkable. The book beautifully evokes the sights and aromas of the voyage.
  But for the Elgar buff this is a fascinating book, full of knowing nods and surprises for those who love the music but perhaps knew less of the man. Of course this is fictional. But there is real plausibility here. And the coup de theatre towards the end is super!
• 
  Ian

  Rather wonderful. Elgar's mysterious and largely undocumented Amazon cruise is a gift for an imaginative writer like Mr Hamilton Paterson and he doesn't mess up the opportunity. There are rich and colourful descriptions of cruise life in the early 1920s and of life in Manaos and Cape Verde. There are also lengthy reflections of a successful composer nearing the end of his life and rather resenting his celebrity status.
  
  It's an absorbing read and recommended for any fans of Mr H-P and for lovers of evocative, descriptive writing in general. I wasn't surprised to find it won awards when it was published. For me it's one of those "miss your station" books which allow you to forget you're actually reading a book and simply absorb the story.
  
  The only fly in the ointment is a couple of slightly tedious tirades against Elgar and his work towards the end, hence my four star review.
  
  And it almost completely lacks the acerbic wit of the "Gerald Stamper" books though it's no less good for that. I picked it up as the library didn't have "Rancid Pansies". Maybe next time.
• 
  Garreth

  Impressive, in many ways. The level of knowledge of Elgar is excellent: the journal entries in particular are so characteristic of the way he wrote his letters as is the understanding of Elgar's particular creative process and more generally there's a depth of characterization that's really most convincing. The fleshing out of a plot from a vague and almost unrecorded episode (I'd never heard of this trip to Brazil before coming across this novel) is well conceived. Finally the sheer poetry of the writing is a joy. As a bit of an Elgar nut I expected to hate it and was very pleasantly surprised.
• 
  Mikael

  this great fantasy bit at the start about a tiki dwelling at the top of a cliff standing in gumboots with wings of steel feathers neck of tangerine whatever its fantastic then splutters into the amazon and discovery travel & vicarious living travelogue
• 
  Tim Atkinson

  Interesting concept - certainly hits the 'prickly' Elgar nail on the head, but inevitably much conjecture. Would an elderly Elgar really travel down a mountain on a sled?
• 
  Keith Miller

  Gerontius by James Hamilton-Paterson (1992)
• 
  Alan

  A fictionalized account of a real cruise to the Amazon taken by Sir Edward Elgar when he was 65. Well written and an interesting commentary on genius.