The Vexations, by Caitlin Horrocks

 The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks


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This book is promoted as a historical novel about the life of French pianist and composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) and the Belle Époque era (1871-1914) in Paris in which he lived. The story is told both through descriptions of his life, and also the lives of his brother, sister, and acquaintances who were part of his life. The portion of the book's narrative about his sister Louise is in first person voice and takes up a significant portion of the book. All other narratives are in third person.

By checking the table of contents of the audio edition of the book I was able to determine how much of the book was devoted to the different people in Erik Satie's life as listed below. The number in parentheses is the percentage of the book's narrative focused on their life.
(38%) Louise—sister
(23%) Philippe—friend and early collaborator 
(20%) Erik 
(12%) Suzanne Valadon—lover for brief time
(7%) Conrad—brother
As can be seen from the above tabulation one could say the book is more about Erik's sister than it is about him, but that's a good thing since Erik was a bit of genius dilettante, probably not all that interesting of a life. 

The author did not provide an author's note commenting of how and where this book deviates from actual history. From the Wikipedia article about Eric Satie I see that his sister's name was Olga. From other sources I've learned that her full name was Louise-Olga-Jeannie Satie, and the author simply chose to use Louise for this book. I presume the broad outline of the character's lives as depicted in the book follow what's known from history. Erik's friend Philippe in the book was actually named Contamine de Latour. However, it's clear in the book that the name Philippe was a nom de plume.

This book's writing is well crafted but complex. I found I needed to listen to portions of the text more than once to make sure I hadn't missed something. The book's story is told mostly through thoughts and conversations of characters in a non-linear timeline.

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