boswellbaxter
08-27-2008, 04:42 PM
I found Mozart's Wife to be absorbing and well-written. It follows Konstanze's life as she grows from a naive young girl to a capable, shrewd woman, her marriage as it disintegrates under the pressures of too many bills, infant mortality, and infidelity.
Konstanze is the narrator here, and her voice is a refreshing one: informal, earthy without becoming coarse, candid, un-self-pitying, and wry. She and Mozart are highly flawed but likable people, who never forfeit our sympathies even as they act appallingly toward each other and toward others. That's very difficult for an author to pull off, and Waldron does it admirably.
Waldron has a nice eye for detail. As a mistress of Mozart's departs the cramped household, she is accompanied by her cats: "Her calico Mutzie and tiger Murr followed, tails up, for all the world like a couple of well-behaved dogs out for a walk."
The book does feel a little disjointed in spots. For instance, Konstanze spends much of Chapter 20 fussing over an impending visit from Leopold, Mozart's difficult father, but the visit is never depicted; when we next hear of Leopold two chapters later, the matter seems to have been forgotten. Did something get cut? I also felt that too little emphasis was placed on Mozart's Masonic ties, considering the crucial role they later assumed in Waldron's explanation of his death and obscure burial.
All in all, though, I enjoyed this book thoroughly
Konstanze is the narrator here, and her voice is a refreshing one: informal, earthy without becoming coarse, candid, un-self-pitying, and wry. She and Mozart are highly flawed but likable people, who never forfeit our sympathies even as they act appallingly toward each other and toward others. That's very difficult for an author to pull off, and Waldron does it admirably.
Waldron has a nice eye for detail. As a mistress of Mozart's departs the cramped household, she is accompanied by her cats: "Her calico Mutzie and tiger Murr followed, tails up, for all the world like a couple of well-behaved dogs out for a walk."
The book does feel a little disjointed in spots. For instance, Konstanze spends much of Chapter 20 fussing over an impending visit from Leopold, Mozart's difficult father, but the visit is never depicted; when we next hear of Leopold two chapters later, the matter seems to have been forgotten. Did something get cut? I also felt that too little emphasis was placed on Mozart's Masonic ties, considering the crucial role they later assumed in Waldron's explanation of his death and obscure burial.
All in all, though, I enjoyed this book thoroughly