The Chateau by William Maxwell - 11 out of 10

 The Chateau by William Maxwell

11 out of 10

The Chateau is splendid on so many levels…the immediate one would be that it offered this reader the fantastic chance to end 2019, at least in the literary department, on a glorious note, with a fabulous magnum opus, after failing with two other books – The Piano Teacher by Jelinek and Before Lunch – and it justifies the inclusion on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction - in the Family and Friends section.

Having had the chance to read the extraordinary, short listed for The Pulitzer Prize and as different as to be somehow the opposite of The Chateau, if we could say that, So Long, See You Tomorrow by the same outstanding writer - http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/09/note-on-so-long-see-you-tomorrow-by.html - the under signed expected if not the same ecstatic pleasure, at least a worthwhile entertainment and more than this was delivered with the ‘adventures’ of the Harold and Barbara Rhodes, the Americans who seemed to be the main characters of the novel, until we read the last part where the author appears to state that it is in fact Madame Vienot who is the heroine of the narrative, albeit it could just be a game, for in that section we may be reading an interview with Maxwell, but it looks like a better bet is that we just have another angle from which to look at the story.

In 1948, this couple travels by boat to France, where they would spend most of the months during which they travel through Europe, Austria with the Salzburg Festival, Italy with stays in Rome and Venice, among others and an eventual return to France where weeks are destined for the celebrated Paris, but The Chateau is the property of the somewhat mysterious Madame Vienot, an aristocrat that had lost her money and the paying guests – that means a degree of imposition we learn from this marvelous work – would speculate on what had happened – was it lost through bad investments, gambling or something else – a patronne that is so interesting, yet miser with the wood for the fire – she had mentioned in their correspondence that they would have hot water, but they would not – friendly and charming now, only to charge for a room that is not occupied during their few days in the capital and to add insult to injury, when she counts the days, the last one is just…two and half hours long!

Throughout their Quest for the Holy Grail, Harold and Barbara would prove phenomenal personages and their experiences through trains, The Chateau and other chateaux, cities, beaches, parties, the river in which they swim, though without the moody, unreliable, if interesting and noble Eugene Soulies de Boisgaillard, but with his amiable, exquisite, loving spouse, Alix, the buses, the cities is ecstatic and offer readers a divine opportunity – which is indeed the reason given by an intelligent thinker to read, for this is how we gain so much experience, we journey with the characters, join them in their discussions and emotions for such a Joy Ride – to see France and Italy with them.

Then there is the continuous reference to art, through the paintings that are mentioned, the buoyant descriptions, from Cherbourg to Mont Saint Michel, an ethereal abbey, the many scenes that recall Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, at other times, William Maxwell writes about the image that makes Harold think of Anna Karenina, Proust is also mentioned and the couple buy as a gift A Passage to India, because in their interactions with the family of their host, they play various games, one of which has the participants write about their favorite novels and A Passage is mentioned, as well as Journey to the End of Night, The Odyssey, Charles Dickens and many others.

The extremely beautiful Barbara and her husband meet many characters, most of them French, the majority seemingly friendly and helpful, although they carry seven suitcases with them, for they have such a long journey ahead and this is a time of shortages, people have to get coupons for almost anything and butter and much else comes from the black market, strangers would help them carry their cumbersome, massive luggage, which is not stolen when they have to leave it in the open at times, although some of the interactions are more complicated, such as the one with Madame Vienot, who is both a guardian at times and apparently a speculator at others, when she takes the taxi and the Americans pay, the mentioned surcharge, the fact that another, quite rich guest offers to pay, only to have the cost still included on the bill for Harold Rhodes at the end of their stay, when the additions seem so mean, albeit these are still very difficult times and it looks so hard for the owner to keep income above costs.

Figures are complex, they meet young people at a party, but in spite of the apparent instant connection with one of the young aristocrats present there, when they meet again at the train station, he looks like a very cold stranger and that happens again and again with Eugene – one sarcastic observer might say that this is the way of the French, but it is not true…large enough groups of people would have bad and good, nice and obnoxious individuals no matter where they come from – and some other personages, including the old lady that appears to act in a role, for she keeps inventing situations, connections that with analysis prove false or at least exaggerated.

The Chateau is more than a remarkable book, it is one that one thinks of reading again with great pleasure, after some years, and it is intriguing to think how different this is from the other masterpiece by William Maxwell, which deals with a murder – as a matter of fact, there have been times when this reader expected something dramatic to happen – there is a burglary, but it is labeled as farcical in its details – especially when there is tension between Eugene and his wife and if he would not kill her, other serious repercussions could be expected…or perhaps with the Germans that visit the apartment in Paris and who express no remorse about the holocaust and the role of the Germans in the war, though it is also true that they  are destitute, feeble and hungry, they have not seen oranges in more than a decade…