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Farming Cuba: Urban Agriculture from the Ground Up

Carey Clouse

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Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba found itself solely responsible...

Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated The Noise of Time in Books

Oct 9, 2017 (Updated Oct 9, 2017)

The Noise of Time

Julian Barnes | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry

8.3

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Historical fiction at its very best

There is a huge amount of non-fiction elements of this bleak novel about one of Russia's most noted composers and musicians Dmitri Shostakovich, who fought inner demons for the majority of his life due to the immense pressures and threats posed by the Soviet Union.

From his complex relationships with women, to the government, the artist was forced to live a life of paranoia, after many of his fellow composers and musicologists mysteriously disappeared following talks with the "Power" at the Big House. There were many moments where it resembled Room 101 from George Orwell's 1984, and the oppressive atmosphere that Shostakovich had to live through.

In the end, Julian Barnes explains that agreeing to Stalin's and Khrushchev's demands had been the ultimate downfall to his health. and in many ways it was a fate worse than death. It is grim and tragic to think about such an important composer in history being treated in such way.