Love is Blind

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Overall, I'm left with the impression that Boyd struggled with writing this novel, particularly in terms of developing his plot. We are told of Brodie’s encounters with prostitutes and he is evidently attractive to women, and generally quite personable and popular. Moving from Edinburgh in 1894 to the far-flung Andaman Islands in 1906, and smoothly landing in various European cities in between, Boyd’s affecting novel follows a young Scotsman’s ardent pursuit of a woman and its treacherous consequences .

Exactly what Brodie is doing there is a mystery that will remain unresolved for almost the entire book. Heart wrenching, sentimental and moving, William Boyd’s 2018 release presents a tragic portrait of the challenges of love. Brodie comes from a large dysfunctional family near Glasgow, and he is fortunate to be sent off to Paris to work for a Scottish piano manufacturer. There are lots of female breasts (lots) and quite a lot of masturbation (not explicit) all of which render sex as a transaction rather than something more emotional, no matter how many times Brodie swears his undying (ha! Brodie Moncur, a talented piano-tuner in Edinburgh meets someone in Paris and ends up falling in love with her to the point of obsession only to realise that she is the partner of someone else.In Paris, a fateful encounter with a famous pianist irrevocably changes his future – and sparks an obsessive love affair with a beautiful Russian soprano, Lika Blum. This rich, lovely novel offers a breathtaking tour of fin-de-siècle Scotland, France and Russia seen through the myopic eyes of Brodie Moncur, a renowned Scottish piano tuner. Pleasingly he’s not too good looking or too hideous – his great height (I’m thinking 6 foot 4 inches or thereabouts), his very dark, swarthy looks and severe short sightedness are easily envisaged. It is inevitable that the towering success of Any Human Heart will define the rest of his career – and many might miss the quirky, low-key comedy of his earlier novels – but this fine, touching and clever book is the best thing he’s written since and deserves similar adulation. Love is Blind is an epic love story that grew in power, hooked me in totally and saw me reading long into the night to finish.

It turned out to be short stories, which is not what I’d wanted/expected – I wanted a really good, solid read. The trouble is, I wasn’t very convinced by Brodie’s passion and found that I was more interested in his piano-tuning than the state of his heart. We follow Brodie from 1888, when he is eighteen, to 1906, in his mid-thirties, and from Edinburgh to Paris to Geneva to Nice to St.This is a tale that features numerous locations including Europe, Russia and the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, taking in music, love, betrayal, revenge, and secrets with its wide cast of characters. In its poignant closing scenes, the book balances the sad and ordinary randomness of life—its bathos even—with a kind of transcendence born out of Brodie’s longing. He weaves a plot as ancient as it is modern, with family, love, intrigue, betrayal, debilitating illness, and the triste of loss. As Brodie follows his heart and his love for Lika consumes him, he is taken on a long-winded adventure across Europe and beyond.

Moving from Paris to St Petersburg to Edinburgh and back again, Brodie's love for Lika and its dangerous consequences pursue him around Europe and beyond, during an era of overwhelming change as the nineteenth century becomes the twentieth.Kilbarron's amour is the beautifully arresting Russian opera singer, Lika Blum, a woman Brodie falls for hook, line and sinker, a passion that will have devastating repercussions on his future. Sure enough, after Brodie and Lika embark on a dangerous affair under John Kilbarron’s nose and the “brown, watchful eyes” of his brother, calamity soon arrives, though from a shocking and completely unforeseen quarter.