August Blue

August Blue by Deborah Levy (2023) The story starts with a woman’s obsession with seemingly trivial things—seeing a stranger buying small, mechanical dancing horses at a flea market—that she wanted—and then finding that woman’s hat, which she then wears obsessively—because she believes the woman is her double. We’re not sure, exactly, how much this is just playful, or if it’s indicative of a problem. The narrator, Elsa, is a famous pianist who’s at a crossroads in her life and career. This spare novel covers surprisingly a lot—her relationships, the death of her adopted father, piano teacher, and mentor, and discovering her unknown past—what could take another book twice as long, or longer. Yet, it takes its time, letting us to get to know Elsa as we see more of the world around her. She keeps seeing (or thinking she sees) her double, as she travels around Europe for a year or so, taking jobs as a music teacher. Her students, their parents, and her friends, are vivid and very funny characters. Later, she’s reunited with her mentor/teacher/father as he’s dying—and the relationship between them—and his lover—is particularly detailed, complex, sad—but also somewhat comic. As we are putting together the pieces to determine who Elsa is, we discover the extent of her fame and accomplishment as a piano prodigy—in contrast with her as someone we relate to as we would a slightly troubled friend. Finally, there is discussion of when she freaked out at a concert—started playing her own idiosyncratic version of the music—until she was ridiculed by the conductor and forced to leave the stage. It’s disturbing, but also exciting. We don’t know if this story is her dead-end, or a new beginning—we know it’s one of those, or maybe even both—but her troubles and her humor put it all in perspective. The big questions—love, death—they’re all in here.

9.12.23