The Vivisector by Patrick White

VIVISECTOR - One who cuts into and otherwise injures living animals for the purposes of research.

In this dense and depressing novel, Nobel Prize winner (1973) Patrick White vivisects the life of an artist, Hurtle Duffield (often called Hurt), who himself vivisects the lives of all those who come close to loving him, dissecting their weaknesses and using them dispassionately as subjects and inspirations for his art, while remaining emotionally detached himself. The plot follows him from the age of 6, when he is essentially sold by his impoverished parents to an upper class couple who desire a son with signs of genius, until his death in his 60s, when he has received fame and fortune for his artistic work. Only once, in the declining years of his life, does he form an attachment which is meaningful for him, to a 13-year-old girl whom he sees as his spiritual child. In their relationship, which is sexual as well as spiritual, she perhaps becomes the vivisector, using him as the stimulus for her own career as a musical prodigy.

Make no mistake, I can clearly see that this novel is a work of genius, almost perfect in its execution, but that does not mean that I enjoyed reading it or that I would recommend it to anyone else, except as an intellectual exercise.

The writing is extraordinary. Though the story is told in third person, it is always from the viewpoint of the protagonist, and the style of the prose shifts according to the state of mind of Hurtle Duffield, encompassing the naive thoughts of a child, the straight-forward account of events of a rational adult mind, the stream-of-consciousness of heightened awareness, and the confused thoughts of a stroke victim. Each sentence is carefully crafted and perfect, even if a great many have to be read more than once. All of this can be well appreciated.

I think it's very true that many a genius is also a monster. Some reviewers have indicated that Patrick White was such a person and may have been his own inspiration for this novel. I was significantly reminded throughout this book of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who used his own wife's sexual indiscretions and mental illness as plot elements in his novels. From this aspect, The Vivisector was quite interesting.

At the same time, reading about a thoroughly unlikeable character through pages and pages (about 600) of hard-to-decipher prose is not my idea of a fun time.

True, a thoughtful reader should welcome an author who deals in truth and deeper implications in a masterful manner. But it is possible to accomplish that and still remain highly readable. White does not do that. At least not in this novel.

In summary, this is a great novel, but I didn't like it. A great many did appreciate it and many others will continue to do so. If I were more intellectual and less emotional, perhaps I would have liked it better.