Firstly, I am a little
bit in love with this novel. First Grief is the Thing with Feathers, then The
Chimes – it’s been a good few weeks.
Anna Smaill’s debut
novel, The Chimes was published earlier
this year, and has since been longlisted (although sadly not shortlisted) for
the Man Booker Prize 2015. I first heard about it when Smaill’s literary agent
gave a talk to my MA course group and, in trying to explain the kind of books
he liked, mentioned in passing an upcoming book by an author of his, a
dystopian novel in which the world is run by music. I thought then that it
sounded rather cool, but I don’t think I fully comprehended how wonderful this
book would be.
A young man named
Simon travels from the countryside to London after the death of his parents,
with nothing in his bag but a recorder and his objectmemories – the possessions
he uses to keep hold of the memory that is slowly slipping from him. In fact,
memories are slipping from everybody outside a select elite called the Order.
Books and writing are banned. People communicate only with speech and music,
and their lives are punctuated by the daily Chimes, the music that feels their
ears and makes them forget…
It’s surprisingly difficult
to explain this novel. The Chimes is
so thoroughly immersive that you take the world as it is. You see everything
from Simon’s perspective, a very direct first person present tense – and because
Simon knows the world he inhabits and because of the fragility of memory in
their world, many things are never fully explained. But I love this. That the
world is often left unexplained not only makes it feel more full, real,
excepted, but lets us inhabit the confusion of Simon and the other characters.
They act as they do from bodymemory, from habit, and if we do not always
understand why they do what they do, it is often because they don’t either.
I love the character
of Simon. He is complex, interesting, and his voice completely immersive. I
think my favourite character was Lucien, the fascinating and mysterious leader
of the group Simon joins in London. Indeed, Simon and Lucien’s relationship was
one of my favourite aspects of the book, developing as it is does the course of
the novel. The characters beyond these central two feel human too. Clare is a
curious character, and I love the complexities and internal battles of Lucien’s
sister Sonja. Even the strange characters Simon and Lucien meet on their
journey have their own distinctions and points of distinctive. Everybody feels
more than merely their purpose in the book.
The writing of The Chimes is superb, especially
considering the world it seeks to describe. This is a world without written
words, a world run by music, a world is which people are constantly forgetting.
Simon’s narrative reflects this; he sometimes forgets what he did a few pages
ago. Moreover the story is told is his language, the language of his world,
which is not always familiar to us. The narrative style is especially inventive
in its use of musical imagery. Music is so dominant a force in society that
Simon doesn’t talk about walking somewhere slowly or fast but ‘lento’ or ‘presto’;
things don’t happen suddenly – they happen ‘subito’;
they don’t take three steps across a room but ‘three
beats’. I love this. It adds such character and depth to the world Smaill
has created.
The world itself is
simply fascinating. Indeed, my only criticism of the book as whole is that it
could have been longer – I would have loved it to by twice, even triple the
length. As I have said, I love this book; I found it thoroughly beautiful, original,
moving, gripping, thought-provoking – everything a book should be – but I
almost wonder if the plot was too epic for three hundred pages. That being
said, it was dealt with very well within that space; I didn’t feel as though
the pace was too fast or as though there were any gaps in the plot – but I did want
to inhabit this world for longer, to discover even more about its intricacies
and complications, about how it came to be.
Still, The Chimes is a truly marvellous book. I
have a feeling that it’s the sort of book that could reread again and again
with the same enjoyment, yet discovering something new every time. Part of my
love for it is due to personal reasons – my love of music, and the fact that
there is something faintly Dickensian about the London presented in The Chimes. Yet beyond this, I firmly
believe that it is an exceptional novel. I am astounded not only by the beauty
and inventiveness of the writing, but by the rich and deep world the book
creates. I eagerly await whatever Anna Smaill writes next.
Greatest
strength: The
world and the premise, without a doubt.
Greatest
weakness: As I’ve
said, I would have been happy for the book to be two or three times the length.
The story and world felt almost too epic to be contained within three-hundred
pages. It is an incredible book, but I also think it would have made an
incredible trilogy.
Let’s
finish on a quote: ‘After Allbreaking, only the pure of heart and hearing were
left. They dwelled in the cities. They waited for order; they waited for a new
harmony. The words are simple, because words are not to be trusted. Music holds
the meaning now. No one is unaccounted for. Even us.’
Note: if you’d like
to see me rant about the amazingness of The
Chimes in person, I’ve also spoken about it in one of my recent Booktube
videos: https://youtu.be/7W6ua9uIUvY?t=210
I don't usually like first-person present-tense because it often feels so direct, but sometimes it works really well. The Chimes sounds like it has a really interesting concept; I'll have to check it out at some point.
ReplyDeleteI think it really works in The Chimes :)
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