What is the cause and drive of the impulse to create art? What happens to an individual who is gifted with talent, but finds himself thwarted? Does that creative spark become some kind of death wish? These are the questions Sky Gilbert explores in The Blue House.
Taking the form of a memoir, the novel relates the story of Rupert Goldmann, a cello virtuoso by the age of twelve, who becomes a composer, and whose life collapses into depression and possible madness when no orchestra will perform his symphonies. Rupert’s musical life includes years of lessons from the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who flirts awkwardly and ineffectually with Rupert, and a full-fledged romance with the celebrity composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
But as his life narrows, Rupert finds himself immersed in dreams and fantasies, which are interrupted by a superficial and talentless gay rights activist and theatre director, and Simon Reycraft, an early explorer of artificial intelligence, who offers the suicidal Goldmann a legacy of computer-generated music — posing a significant question for our times: Can art be created by a machine, technology without a soul?
Rupert Goldmann’s “memoirs” trace the story of his life as a child-prodigy cello virtuoso, his flirtations and relationships, his experiences as an unrewarded composer, and his eventual, much-interrupted attempt to retreat into the world of his imagination.
“… a thoughtful exploration of the travails of a brilliantly tortured mind, an effortless interweaving of fiction and history, and the affection of closeness with the subject matter and the real people by whom it is cherished. Gilbert’s voice has the surety of experience and study, as well as that of an author who can look back upon their successful oeuvre.”
– Compulsive Reader
“Gilbert’s novel of ideas is open to the broadest spheres, even as its plot begins narrow and moves towards an ever finer point.”
– The Miramichi Reader
