John Freeman

Between 1902 and 1905, Henry James published three of the 20th century's finest novels: "Wings of the Dove," "The Ambassadors" and "The Golden Bowl." Ten years prior, however, James was in a rut and hardly writing. In his fifth novel, "The Master," a finalist for the Booker and winner of the LA Times Book Award, Colm Toibin takes up the life of this intensely private American novelist during his darkest hour. The story opens in 1895, when James' first play was booed out of the theater. Humiliated, James vows to recreate his art anew.

In a style elegantly reminiscent of James' own work, Toibin imagines how his hero accomplished that. As Toibin sees it, James' central dilemma during this period was not what to write, but how to regain the equilibrium he needed in order to work. It is a fascinating and sad task to watch on the page. Every leap forward--a new retreat where he can work, a fresh idea--is prompted by two or three flashbacks to moments where James pulled away from friends, family and potential lovers. As he enters his sixties, James is haunted by the deaths of his sister and his cousin, both of whom he let down in times of need.

Toibin recognizes the most difficult part of making history come alive is not getting the details or chronology right; it is how to convey the texture and flavor of consciousness in an era not our own. "The Master" accomplishes this beautifully as James' inward journey becomes a broad yet beautiful portrait of his entire life. James recalls his childhood growing up in the shadow of an older, more athletic brother--William James, the founder of modern psychology--and a domineering father, Henry James, Sr., a man who studied the world with a voracious, if reductive desire to uncover evidence of humankind's ability to better itself.

Those looking for a bodice ripper might look elsewhere, since, true to its subjects work, "The Master" is a tale in which nothing actually happens. James nearly acts on his homosexual impulses. He almost falls out with his family. For the most part, though, the important action takes place in James' head. Here he turns his appetites into tastes and sublimates them into fiction. James listens in at dinner parties and later warps these conversations into dialogue. It's a delicate, mysterious process--this act of creation--but Toibin captures it beautifully. He makes us understand that it's miraculous anyone writes at all.

"The Master"

By Colm Toibin

Scribner, $25, 338 pages

Colm Toibin reads from "The Master" on May 3 at a noon lunch with the Heartland Literary Society at The Northern Trust Company, 50 South LaSalle, (312)444-3519.

(2005-04-26)

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