Mephisto Waltz

"SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER," says the promotional flyer attached to this novel. The story is about pianists and a Chopin competition in Warsaw, Poland. Of course, the setting prepares the stage for commentaries on the Holocaust and the continued anti-Semitism in the air, as some of its last victims live their final days. Mephisto valse is the first novel by Ollivier Pourriol, who demonstrates his talent throughout with wit, irony, and sarcasm. The narrative is entertaining, with little-known anecdotes interspersed about the lives and deaths of celebrated composers. The narrator is a professional pianist who gives up his piano-playing to write this story about how his career was launched when he was twenty-eight years old at this very Chopin competition. Along the way there are intriguing episodes about his relationships to various women he meets in Warsaw and especially with a handless former pianist for the Auschwitz orchestra, Zakhor. The word zakhor means "remember," and this character haunt-

ingly dresses like Mozart's commander/father, black cape and all. The names of the other characters, as well as their personalities, are equally colorful: Ergo Zeitos, Pietr Ostreich, Svetlana, and Barbie. They are all smoothly woven into the plot to make a rather boring piano competition into the backdrop for mayhem and murder. The title of the novel refers to a piano concerto by Franz Liszt, introduced into the Chopin repertoire. This piece by Liszt is hauntingly present throughout the narrative and is reported to have been used by members of the French Resistance in order to cover the noise made when Nazis were assassinated in retribution for the Occupation. Musical history is at stake within the novel, as the role of music for narratives is constantly at play. The exoticism of Poland is reflected in the frequent use of vodka, the sounds of the Polish language, and the story's violent ambience. Mephisto valse is an entertaining first novel that is well worth examining.

Roland A. Champagne

University of Missouri, St. Louis

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