George Anderson: Notes for a Love Song in Imperial Time

Theo Fales is a one-time historian turned book editor who specializes in ghostwriting the memoirs of leading American policy-makers. For over twenty-five years, Theo has been helping retired generals and CIA directors justify their decisions in the first-person. One day, however, hearing a song at a colleague's memorial service, Theo has a vision: he senses, in the music, a completely different way to live. He becomes obsessed by a need to align musical time with the metre of his own life and prose. Theo's method opens onto two seemingly contradictory interior landscapes: one, a rage of identification with a college classmate who has written and signed the legal document justifying the use of torture by the US; the other, a love for the singer best known for her interpretations of the composer who wrote that vital song. Theo commits himself to the idea that only through his method will he be able to save himself. Is he mad, or has history itself lost its way?

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Published: 03/05/2013
ISBN: 9781564788016
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.40w x 0.60d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 02/11/2013
New York Times Book Review 05/05/2013 pg. 20
New York Times Book Review 05/12/2013 pg. 38