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The Secret Life of Glenn Gould
“Long after his death, Glenn Gould still lures new listeners to his piano, connecting with them on a haunting, personal level.” If you’ve ever heard his stunning renditions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, then you know this to be true. There is something quite a ways beyond haunting in the interpretive abilities that this world-famous piano player had access to. And of course, perhaps beginning with his childhood, his was a strange genius.
Not a whole lot is really known about Glenn Gould the man, the lover, and supposedly, this book purports to be the undoing of this secrecy. From the beginnings of his relationship with his demanding mother, we learn only slightly more than we knew before, which wasn’t much. According to the author, Michael Clarkson, Gould was apparently inspired to a great degree by a string of relationships with women, which in the case of a socially private Gould, amounts to headline news. From Franny Batchen to Verna Sandercock to Cornelia Foss and others, Clarkson attempts to paint a vivid picture of what fans of the great pianist never knew of the rest of his life. But after a read-through, one is hard-pressed to say that the details are that lurid, or deep, or even terribly interesting. Of course he had relationships with women. Of course he participated in salons with other creative types. But what do we really come away with upon finishing the book? Well — don’t go into a read of this expecting a kind of tabloid-level unpacking, replete with luminously dirty details. They’re not in there. And they’re also not exactly what this reader was looking for, either. But in terms of my expectations, well — I just expected more, somehow. Continue reading →
