The Concert Ticket is not a parody or absurd drama like Waiting for Godot, or a metaphor for life in a totalitarian system things do happen in the book, and the line itself becomes a device to rope in multiple themes and characters together, if you'll pardon my expression. Each of the four protagonists - a husband, his mother, his wife and their son - desires a ticket, as they all are dissatisfied with their life, and each seeks the concert ticket as a metaphorical ticket to transport them out of it, if only for a short while. Despite all this, the line continues to grow longer and longer - friendships and acquaintances form, and the line becomes a society of its own. Although the number of tickets will certainly be very limited people continue to wait, not really knowing what the kiosk will even sell - and when. Tickets are rumored to be sold in a mysterious kiosk which never seems to be open nonetheless a long line forms, and new people join it daily. The concert Ticket tracks the year in the life of a single family, united by a common goal - to obtain a ticket for the concert of a famous composer-emigrant, who is said to return to the country for a single performance. Every ordinary citizen becomes a small cog in a wheel of a machine aimed at creating perfect happiness, order and unity obvious symbolism is obvious but Grushin does her work justice and doesn't push it, pushing it to the far background of the story which she is about to tell. The Concert Ticket (also published as The Line is set in an unnamed Russian city, some years after an event known simply as The Change.
It is Olga Grushin's second novel, and after reading it I am eager to read her debut and future work. The best way to describe The Concert Ticket is charming or even better, enchanting.
"The Line" is a transformative novel that speaks to the endurance of the human spirit even as it explores the ways in which we love-and what we do for love." A disparate gaggle of strangers evolves into a community of friends united in their desire to experience music they have never been allowed to hear. Unlikely friendships are forged, long-buried memories spring to life, and a year-long wait is rewarded with unexpected acts of kindness that ease the bleakness of harshly lived lives. But as time passes and the seasons change and the ticket kiosk remains shuttered, these anonymous souls take on individual shape. Nameless faces join the line, jostling for preferred position. The line begins to form on the whispered rumor that a famous exiled composer is returning to Moscow to conduct his last symphony. The line: the universal symbol of scarcity and bureaucracy that exists wherever petty officials are let loose to abuse their powers. Now she returns with that rarity: a second novel even more dazzling than her first. Grushin's stunning debut drew praise that placed her in the top rank of young literary voices.
0 kommentar(er)
