Word: cappella
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Horovitz's just-published Cappella, his first novel, is a strange mixture of forms; certainly not a novel in the ordinary sense. The story weaves around two characters--one young, one old--who lie in adjacent beds in a hospital surgical ward. A copyist assigned to note everything dictated by the young man, Byron, relates the story. But the copyist makes his task a greater one and copies diligently not only what Byron says, but what he thinks, and also what his roommate, the 70-year-old Cappella, says and thinks and does. The novel is this copyist's first...
...once said. But instead of writing a play, Horovitz chose to write a novel this time, and this choice shows his concern with form. Horovitz again contradicts himself by centering the novel on himself rather than a social issue like fear (The Indian Wants the Bronx) or racism (Morning). Cappella is an autobiography; Byron is Israel Horovitz. Both the fictional Byron and the real Horovitz were born on March 31, both have a wife and three children, and, foremost, both are authors...
...much as the copyist obscures, he also analyzes, and his thoughts parallel the developing relationship between Byron and Cappella as they relate parts of their lives to each other. Cappella is lonely and troubled mainly because he is unwanted and superfluous. He explains a painful extramarital relationship which resulted in a daughter whose true identity he had to keep from his wife; and between sad reminiscences he screams in the night for herring or chopped liver...
...Cappella is waiting to die, but at the same time to be reborn. He can not bear to be released from the hospital even when he is healed, and he consequently reopens his wound with a yellow number 2 pencil. When he sneaks out of the hospital to wander the city streets, he carries with him a tragic note...
...name is A. CAPPELLA I have nobody. If you find me dead, leave me be for ten minutes then bring me back to life...