Hidden Faces

I haven't read much by Dali before and mainly admired his art so this was really interesting to read and explore his literary work.

I think this isn't for everyone. This kept reminding me of Waugh, if he was dark and overly wordy, except the relationships were more complicated. It's interesting to read fiction that tells so sweepingly of a historical period
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Last year I read the newly-rediscovered lost novel of Derek Jarman, a Carrollesque dive into the world of extravagant excess that is America. There is something particular about prose from a visual artist, with a voice that distills reality into something far beyond. This offering from Dali sings with the same bursts of creativity, and will intrigue anyone interested even slightly in the outré.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Pushkin Press for an advance copy of this reprint of the sole work of fiction by one of the twentieth centuries most well known artists.

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol, known to the world as Salvador Dalí, was probably one of the first artists, outside comic books that I was aware of. I loved as a child timepieces of all kinds, and my father once showed me the The Persistence of Memory painting Dalí, had done and it stuck with me. The painting featuring clock faces melted, or folded is a good example of the surreal thinking that Dalí lived his life by. Dalí worked in film, photography, video, and was the choice to play the Emperor in the first, lost attempt to make the movie Dune. Dalí was also a writer. The Secret Life of Salvadore Dalí, his autobiography is cited as a true classic. Hidden Faces, Dalí's work of fiction is not as well known.

The book has 6 main characters, and many others who are caught in the wake of these 6 passages. The book looks at the time before the Second World War and follows them from the hopes or what will be, to what is left. All are wounded by their experiences, all will be changed what is coming, and what will happens.

The book ranges around the world and takes a lot of what happens, and many ideas from what Dalí was seeing all around him. Most know Dalí as that guy with the weird facial hair, and might not expect a book that is almost Dickens-like in plot and uses language not only to tell the story, but to sow confusion among readers, to obscure what seems obvious. This time is dying, and no matter how these people try to keep it alive, there is no coming back. There are a lot of internal dialogues too. These might seem to be almost like stream of consciousness rambling, but they are more than that. Most of these characters have never had to face truths, or reality, and lack the skill to even know how to communicate loss or rage. Or empathy. Some continue to do as they also do, as the land grows smaller, the trees are dying, and life goes on. A few change names or identities as being someone else is always better than who we are.

Not a book for everyone. This is worth the exploration and the time. There is alot going on, so reading this one will have to denote a certain amount of time. I found this very interesting reader, but do have to admit, it took a lot of persistence of time to get through.

I usually read very quickly but there's no way anyone can fully appreciate Salvador Dali's (yes THAT Salvador Dali) novel about a group of high society French people both pre and during WW2 without taking their time over it.
The core of the story is the bizarre relationship between the Count of Grandsailles and Solange de Cleda over the years, ever complicated by misunderstandings ,fate and the often bizarre or outrageous behaviour of both. Grandsailles is quite a revolting character who despite that seems to attract loyalty and devotion from those in his orbit. Typically of his kind with rival political factions doing battle in the streets,the German army invading and heroic resistance around him he spares a thought for little else than his comforts and wants, wreaking havoc in the lives of others.

This is definitely not a book for everyone,there's a great plot but ,particularity in the early chapters Dali seems intent on grandstanding and showing off his vast vocabulary and literary skills, both of which it has to said are quite spectacular. He never uses a simple sentence when several paragraphs of flowery and/or incisive prose suggesting that he might indeed at some point have "swallowed a dictionary" as the old saying used to be. As a fan of great writing as well as a good plotline I loved it,others might feel battered by verbosity and not be so impressed. It seems at first as if there are a lot of big words but not much happening but eventually Dali gets into his stride and things are a lot easier to follow.
This ,as long as you can handle the writing style,is a massively entertaining story with flashes of intellectualism throughout. It reminded me very much of my favourite French Author both in style and subject and I'd be very surprised if Pierre La Maitre wasn't influenced by this book when he wrote his "Paris Between the Wars" trilogy.
This won't be for everyone,"wordy" doesn't even touch the sides, but if you're a fan of masterly language usage it's bordering on a masterpiece.