Solo Viola by Antoine Volodine (Translated by Lia Swope Mitchell | ARC Review

"But it takes courage to complete the explanation, to say that something 

instinctive, doubtless inscribed in the genetic heritage of the species, compels the 

great masses of humanity to condone that which promises desolation and 

carnage.."

Review :

 

A powerful novella set in a fictional world where a variety of characters collide 

: a mixture of characters from just released prisoners, to circus performers, 

writers and a string quartet all living under the rule of an authoritarian 

government and their military heavies, seeking the strange counterbalance of 

hope in a viola player, whose stunning music just might save them all, if only 

for a moment. 

 

The leader of the Frondists in the novella is typically buffoonish and 

interchangeable with his henchmen, willing to use racism to mobilise the masses. 

It’s quite an indictment on the behaviour of people in crowds and the need to 

chant insulting slogans. 

 

First published in French in 1991, and only recently translated into 

English by Lia Swope Mitchell with an excellent Foreward by Lionel 

Ruffel, this translation reads as very current and applicable to various places 

around the world.

At once humorous and horrifying, Solo Viola is one of Antoine 

Volodine’s first forays into post-exoticism. 

 

Solo Viola consists of two main parts with a short postscript. The first section 

had me in mind of Italo Calvino. It has that fable-like, somewhat 

whimsical quality to it. 

 

All the characters, and Frondism, come together in the second part of the 

novel in a gradually building set piece of horror that reflects an attack on the 

arts and its supporters, an attack on a perceived cultural elite by the populist 

mass expertly manipulated by totalitarian leadership. Those who enjoy a good 

string quartet performance will be rather uncomfortable here. Volodine 

portrays the helplessness of those who become the target of the totalitarian mob's 

rage. 

 

The brief postscript suggests, in my initial read at least, that escape from this 

fate is only partially achievable by turning away from the reality of human 

nature and society and turning inward to the world of imagination, where we 

can at least imagine a society of the brotherhood of man - but which would 

ironically only exist in the mind of a sole person, and which here is suggested by 

a solo viola playing. 

 

It wasn't an easy read for me this time. But I’d go so far as to 

recommend that you not read the Foreward until you’ve finished the novel.