The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York
Horowitz’s novel should appeal both to musical aficionados and those who know Gustav Mahler only from his music. We get a backstage view of the Metropolitan Opera in 1908 when Mahler comes from Vienna to NYC as its director with his wife, Alma. The book describes the opera world in that era and how the utterly focused Mahler and more social Alma managed without fluency in English.
We’re introduced to the major figures of the time from the inside. This knowledge may at times overwhelm the reader. It’s not simply the story of a December-May marriage, tainted by the recent death of their daughter and the couple’s personal and, in his case, professional challenges. More comes from Alma’s perceptions than Mahler’s, obsessed with his work. When frustrated and lonely she reminds herself of her womanly role: muse, mother, and nurse. Yet she’s written many songs, which Gustav minimizes until a marital crisis well into the book also leads to his spending four hours walking and talking with Sigmund Freud. The novel is peppered with fascinating characters in New York and Boston at the time.
The Marriage is a dense book. Horowitz weaves in passages reflecting his extensive musical knowledge, which can give the feel of nonfiction. The massive biography of Mahler by Jens Malte Fischer touches lightly on his New York years, and Alma’s memoirs are unreliable. To fill the gap, as Horowitz says in the preface, “historical fiction can be a vital tool for the framing of cultural history.” It’s a worthy attempt. Though at times the shifts in person, first to third and back, can be confusing, this is compensated for by strong writing and lovely sentences. Overall, this book achieves his goal of bringing to life the marriage of two daunting personalities.
