I can't think of another novel I've read recently that has been so full of ideas and symbolism, literally brimming with them, than Simon Mawer's The Glass Room. Mawer's handling of the story seems somehow fitting when the centerpiece of the novel, perhaps you could even call it the stage, is an ultra modern house that serves as a sign for a new, more modern era and a progressive way of thinking.
In 1930 German architect Mies van der Rohe completed the Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czechoslovakia. An elegant structure with an open and airy floor plan, it was constructed of modern materials and included a stunning room enclosed on two sides by plate glass windows with a translucent onyx wall as the backdrop. The setting sun would hit the wall and bathe the room in a glow of changing colors. The Tugendhats were a Jewish family who fled Czechoslovakia in 1938 before the Sudetenland was annexed by Nazi Germany. Mawer surely found in the Villa Tugendhat his inspiration for The Glass Room.
I think what I find so fascinating and exciting about the interwar years in general were the vast, sweeping cultural and social changes that had an impact on nearly every aspect of people's lives. In The Glass Room Viktor and Liesel Landauer are proponents of these progressive ideals. The Landauers are comfortably well off, as Victor is the owner of a car factory producing sleek new models of the future. On their honeymoon in Venice they meet architect Rainer von Abt who will put form to their ideals creating for them a house like no other. He's not just an architect who build walls, floors and roofs, but he "captures and encloses the space within."
"Yet it was in this enchanted fortress, among the ormolu lamps and velvet drapes, beneath ornate plastered ceilings and chandeliers of Murano glass, that they pursued their ideal of a modern house that would be adapted to the future rather than the past, to the openness of modern living rather than the secretive and stultified life of the previous century."
As form follows function, Abt uses the most sumptuous and modern materials, but with the barest ornamentation ("ornament is a crime"). And the Landauers are happy in their glass house, raising their children--who will be brought up as "citizens of the world"--entertaining their friends and sponsoring cultural gatherings. Or at least they appear to be. The glass room is the heart of the house. It is a place of transparency, where no one can tell lies. But of course we all know how messy real life can be and it's impossible to see into the human heart and what darkness lies there. Even Viktor admits he needs to learn how to lie in this transparent glass house.
Storm clouds form on the horizon and its not hard to see which way the political wind is blowing. Although Liesel doesn't want to leave their home and friends, Viktor is a Jew, if only in name. He begins moving their funds and assets out of the country, preparing for their own departure, first to Switzerland and then on to America. The Landauer House remains, a witness of sorts to the horrible events that follow, evolving or adapting to each new owner for each new use. First the Germans use it as a scientific facility where they test their theories on genetics and race. Later during the Soviet era it becomes a children's gymnasium where young polio victims receive physiotherapy. Eventually the story will come full circle. Though the Landauers are not always center stage, they are not far away, and by the story's end they and the story will come full circle.
Mawer divides the story into sections, though the bulk of the time is spent with the Landauers. However disparate the stories may seem, they run parallel and many of the same themes emerge over the course of the story's (and house's) sixty odd years. The glass room may be open for all to see inside, but the lives that pass through are defined more by their lies and deceptions than by the progressive ideals they think they are living. The Glass House is a study in contrasts--light vs. darkness, the rational vs. the irrational, transparency and clarity vs. deception and betrayal.
And Mawer uses language to great effect exploring these themes and bringing out the subtleties of the character's motivations and intentions. Having a large German minority meant many Czechs spoke both languages and how the languages were used and to whom they were spoken had varying meanings and showed social position or conveyed different attitudes. And he often plays with words revealing nuances we don't have in the English equivalent. The glass room is not only a Glasraum, or glass space, but it also becomes the Glastraum, or glass dream. Conversely the use of the Czech words, skleneny pokoj, means it isn't just a glass room, but also the Glass Tranquility, which throws yet more light on the meaning, however ironic it may be.
I've intentionally skimmed over many of the details of the plot. Besides not liking to give too much away to those who haven't read the book yet, I know this has been much written about and dissected thanks to Mawer's appearance on the Booker shortlist last year (and have read a few too many reviews myself to know now what exactly to share with you). Although the story plays out against the war years and I think it needed to, I don't see it as a "war story". I don't think Mawer is exploring history's effect on these characters, rather something more personal or internal that happens to work well against the backdrop of this period in time. As much as I love modern art, I do sometimes think some of it can be a little cold and sterile--something you look at and appreciate from a distance rather than wish you could wrap yourself in. And as much as I liked this book, and I did like it very much, I sort of felt the same way about it. I felt a little too distanced. It's a novel I can appreciate for what Mawer is trying to do but maybe not one I can wholeheartedly love. Still, it's a worthy read with lots to think about, and I suspect the story is going to linger in my mind. It's definitely one to look for if it sounds at all appealing to you.
I only wish the publisher would have carried over the cover art from the cloth edition to the paper, as to me it better conveys the tone and texture of the story. I do have Mawer's The Fall on hand and look forward to reading it and will be curious to see how it compares.