full review: http://wp.me/p42FJU-cPI've come to realize that Michel Faber is really ****ing weird, and I love it. My third Faber adventure, after The Crimson Petal and the White and The Fire Gospel is his collection of three novellas entitled The Courage Consort. I liked it much better than The Fire Gospel and can see how his wit and his sense of the strange and surreal influenced the writing of Crimson Petal. These three novellas are witty, ironic, sometimes downright ridiculous, and unexpectedly poignant at times. The three are "The Courage Consort," "The Hundred Ninety-Nine Steps," and "The Fahrenheit Twins."The Courage Consort Review"The Courage Consort" begins this collection. It tells the story of an a cappella group named, appropriately, The Courage Consort. Their group is christened such both because their founder's surname is Courage and also for the old Wesleyan adage, "sing lustily and with much courage." Roger and Catherine Courage are a married couple in the Consort who live for weeks in the Chateau de Luth, practicing a modern piece for a concert. The dynamic of the five members of the consort figure prominently in the narrative, as does the mental state of Kate, who suffers from depression. Kate has fantasies of suicide and is unhappy in her marriage. She also hears an ethereal, anguish-filled child's cry every night during her sleep. Kate is the main protagonist of this story, as she navigates her awkward, sexless marriage; her relationship with the only other woman in the consort, a sexual, confident mother named Dagmar; and the kinship she feels with bulky, overweight Ben Lamb. It's an interesting story of character development and the way these very different people manage not to rip each others' hair out. When tragedy strikes the consort, they must examine their principles and begin new lives."The Hundred Ninety-Nine Steps" takes place in the UK town of Whitby, the same setting as Dracula, a gothic setting for a less-than-gothic novella. It does have touches of the dramatic, however:She closed her eyes, longing to trust him, longing to rest her head in the pillowy crook of his arm, but at the last instant, she glimpsed sideways, and saw the knife in his other hand. Her scream was gagged by the blade slicing deep into her throat, severing everything right through to the bone of her spine, plunging her terrified soul into pitch darkness.Thus this novella begins, with a thirty-something archaeology student named Siân on a dig of a monastery in Whitby. Since her arrival in Whitby, Siân has been plagued by the same murderous dream night after night. A shy, idealistic woman, Siân meets a fit jogger named Mack, a Londoner in town to handle his late father's affairs. The two are attracted to each other but find themselves constantly butting heads on issues of religion, antiquity, and faith. Siân believes strongly in the virtue of the medieval monks and priests, in the truth and nobility of history, in a higher power. Mack, a cynic, tries to disabuse Siân of her long-held notions and comes across, to me, as obnoxious and self-serving. When Mack discovers a message in a bottle in his father's estate, he enlists Siân's help with interpreting its contents, hoping for a grisly tale of murder. What they find plays with the readers' expectations of the gothic genre and sheds new light upon the nature, and sometimes contradictory nature, of religion and faith. A great, quick read with solid, interesting characters and a satisfying ending."The Fahrenheit Twins" was my favorite of the three stories. It's set on an island near the North Pole and follows the lives of young twins Marko'cain and Tainto'lilith as they make sense of their bleak, desolate world around them. The twins are the children of ethnologists who are conducting research on nearby aboriginal communities on the island. Marko'cain and Tainto'lilith, who are probably around ten years old, were born on the island, possess impressive survival skills, know nothing of the outside world, and together, piece together little bits and pieces of facts they write down in a book. Their banter and wit and they way they finish each others' sentences lend this story a touch of levity in an otherwise bleak novella. Bleak, because their ethnologist mother dies, and their alleged father (it's implied that an aboriginal man is actually the twins' biological father) sends them on a deadly expedition from which they must find their way back. Because of my love of the North, the lively little characters, and the dry humor of this piece, it was easily my favorite.Faber is an interesting writer for the way he infuses his stories with a bit of surrealism and the fantastical without explaining anything; for example, the nightmares Siân has echo the murder she discovers in the bottle's message; and Kate in "The Courage Consort" never discovers the source of that eerie, unearthly child's cry. I liked those elements of unexplained, otherworldly events. They add a touch of surreality to the narrative and do much to explain the characters' mental states.
A very strong four stars for this collection of three novellas. Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White ranks with Ian McEwan's Atonement as the two best novels I've read that were written this century, but I did not care for Under the Skin at all. These stories are completely unlike either work in theme and setting, but Faber's master characterization abilities in The Crimson Petal are on display here.The Courage Consort concerns a singing group sequestered at a cottage in Benelux to practice an offbeat composer's work. This does not seem terribly interesting at first blush, but the way Faber creates very real characters very quickly turns it into a great story about individuals coalescing, or not, to form a team.The Hundred and Ninety-Nine steps is the weakest of the three, in that's it's merely very good rather than great, as a doctor and conservator meet by happenstance on grounds that monks and nuns shared for centuries, and the 199 steps that were walked up to bury them. The ancient murder mystery is unique and the play between the two leads is very on point with reality.The Fahrenheit Twins is a brilliant tale of two 10 year olds isolated on a Siberian island with their anthropologist parents from Germany. The twins, self-sufficient for all intents and purposes, build their own lives and quasi-religion away from their parents, one of whom may not have their best interests at heart and neither of whom has the pair as their first priority.Faber on his game is a first tier writer and these three long stories are just that. This was an excellent read.
What do You think about The Courage Consort (2005)?
I picked up this collection because of the considerable strengths of "The Crimson Petal and the White," but found it to be nothing like. The former is a fast-moving, exotic read, a real treat: these novelettes are slowpaced and inelegant. I read the first story in full, gave the second one a look-over, and just gave up.Yes, the writing is occasionally rich, but it often is ordinary or works too hard:"Perspiration and the odd pimple glittered on his pumpkin face""'Mmmm,' said Roger, as he might have done if a Bedouin chieftain was watching him eat sheep's eyes at a politically delicate banquet.""Diss giffs you an idea?"
—Kate
A group of five a cappella singers go to a large house in the Belgian countryside to rehearse a piece of avant garde music called partitum mutante. They are different personalities and the main character, Catherine Courage, is suicidal. When they settle in for a fortnight of practice Catherine hears a strange wailing in the nearby forest at night and as the temperature rises in the weather, so does the temperature in the house... The novella has potential given that setup however it was never going to be a rollercoaster ride. It reads very safely, that is like a Radio 4 play. More annoyingly though is the fact that nothing much happens in the novella. The sexual tension is never acted upon and the wailing ghostly cry in the forest is mentioned a few times and never resolved. A few cartoon-like characters make an appearance as eccentric eurotrash but do nothing more. The group bicker for much of the book until the sudden ending and that's it. Faber's a brilliant writer who knows how to tell a story so the book reads very smoothly despite the lack of anything resembling a plot. However, having read his much better works like "Under the Skin", "The Courage Consort" pales in comparison and is a very weak book that never quite takes off.
—Sam Quixote
Turns out The Book of Strange New Things wasn't a one off. Faber really is that good of a writer. This collection of three novellas certainly attests to it and, in fact, was a book of strange (very, but mesmerizingly so) new (to me) things. Meditative, pensive tales, even depressing at times, depending on one's mood. wasn't quite sure how to review, until the last story, which was just a work of sheer beauty and wonder. The author stated that he has now retired from storytelling, which is sort of impressive, to get out while the going was good is a talent as well certainly. Recommended.
—Bandit
