Nicholas Mosley (1923–2017)

Idea novels or conceptual novels are seldom literary gems. That is certainly the case with this book. Mosley has been smart enough to process a nice love story in his book, and at the same time evoke dramatic historic periods (especially the rise of Nazism and the Second World War). The passages that revolve around these themes are the easiest to read. But Mosley has given priority to the ideas and concepts, not to the story. Sometimes this is to be taken literally: the book contains numerous discussions about the major 20th Century developments in physics (relativity theory, quantum theory, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, etc.), biology (Darwinists versus Lamarckians and the genetic debate), psychology (the wars between different psychoanalysis schools), philosophy (Heidegger, Wittgenstein), the ideological (of course especially fascism and communism), etc. Ingenious and erudite, that is the least you can say.

But the uniqueness of this book is that Mosley illustrates all these perspectives by means of his concrete characters and what they experience or do: they constantly function in one of the above-mentioned scientific debates (for example, as particles that attract or repel each other, or who function as matter or wave according to the observer's point of view) and he constantly lets those characters, while they say or do certain things at the same time think of the underlying scientific-philosophical issues in themselves; and on top of that, Mosley again and again underlines the ethical implications of these ideas and actions. That gives a certain artificial character to the 'dramatis personae' (they literally seem to be actors who create their role and also undergo him at the same time). It takes quite some patience and attention to follow all this, and it makes the reading of this book utterly intriguing and difficult at the same time. Hence the very different reviews by the readers of this book, from wildly enthusiastic to absolutely horrified, and hardly anything in between. In the unlikely hope of being original, I opt for the ambiguous middle-opinion: this book is an incredible achievement of Mosley, but it is not a successful piece of fiction.… (meer)