Have any of you read The Cellist of Sarajevo by Canadian author Steven Galloway? This thought-provoking novel gained fame or notoriety when Yan Martel (Life of Pi) sent it to Prime Minister Harper as a reminder of the importance of Canadian arts and literature.
The novel is set during the seige of Sarajevo in 1996, a conflict which killed an estimated 12,000 people. You may recall that this conflict was a wicked brew which boiled up from centuries of ethnic and religious tension.
The central premise of the novel actually happened. Twenty two people were killed by a shell that landed in a city market, one more incident of senseless killing. A cellist who has remained anonymous set up each day for twenty two days and played a piece by Giazotto entitled Adagio in G in honour of the dead and in protest of the mindless violence.
While the musician in The Cellist of Sarajevo is a negligible figure he is necessary for a narrative which unfolds through the lives of several other beleaguered characters, including the female sniper assigned to guard him.
Reviews have focussed on the importance of artistic expression and protest in the midst of the chaos of war. I also saw it as a spiritual statement (what else would you expect from me?) So often religion seems like a quixotic and foolhardy voice in the midst of the events of the "real world." Yet over and over again we see supposed reality exposed as the brutal and often inhumane lust for power and wealth. Sometimes religion is appropriated for the purpose of hatred and violence, but it also offers another way.
In some respects the incarnation is God's choice to be the cellist, to be in our midst and play the beautiful, healing music despite the risk. Perhaps only a few will stop to listen or be able to hear above the tumult, but it has always been that way.
When we choose to follow Christ we take up that music and never stop playing.
3 comments:
It was a good read. Are we to be the cellist, the sniper or just to listen, or all three?
Good question Laurie. It seems to me that there are too many self-appointed religious snipers out there. They fire away at the enemy thinking that they are heroes of the faith when they are really just assassins.
There are also lots of passers-by who may respect the musician, but don't hang around.
It will always be smallest group that will take the risk of making music, whatever the consequences.
As soon as there is space in my mind for something other than worry over my son, I would love this book. I miss being able to look at the world from the broad perspective of literature, something that has saved me in the past from falling back into my own psychosis. This looks like exactly the kind of book I would love to sink into. The experience of psychosis can in many ways give a greater deeper understanding of the world outside the self. It really has been a gift. (Yep, I think I am ready to begin talking about this horrible disease that so many suffer from. Not that it is related to this conversation specifically but I have come back from the realm of nightmares, and I know others can too. Reading was a large part of my own recovery so many years ago. Then slowly I stopped talking about it, slowly I began pretending it never happened, until recently when forced to look at it again from yet another painful perspective.)
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