This Man and Music, by Anthony Burgess (McGraw-Hill, 192 pp., $14.95)
Anthony Burgess’s secret life is revealed at last: He’s a frustrated composer. Not that it was much of a secret, of course, but we now get the details, including a complete list of compositions written between 1934 and 1982. (Among the more intriguing entries: The Blooms of Dublin, “an operetta based on James Joyce’s Ulysses”; Sinfoni Malaya, “for orchestra and brass band and shouts of ‘Merdeka’ from the audience”; and a duet for harmonica and piano called “Tommy Reilly’s Maggot.”) We also get a delightful memoir of a misspent youth called “Biographia Musicalis” and a long, shrewd, erratic treatise on “those areas where music and literature undoubtedly meet—uncomplicated regions where musical rhythm elucidates prosody or symphonic structure has something to say to the reader of fiction.” Non-musical readers of fiction need not tremble too much, since Burgess has done his level best to clear away the underbrush; those whose interests are as broad as Burgess’s will be alternately fascinated and horrified by his speculations; Burgess fans will appreciate this new piece of an old, warped puzzle.
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