Is it really a secret?

Anna Enquist: The Secret
(2000)

The story of the Dutch writer, Anna Enquist is about the life of a (Dutch) pianist, Wanda Wiericke. We can follow her life from the moment of her birth till when she is over 60. Sometimes it looks like a movie script, every chapter is like a long-long scene, and one chapter is about the young Wanda an other about the old one, or a man called Bouw (first we meet him, we don’t know who is he, but later we can learn, he is the ex-husband of Wanda).

Wanda’s whole life is about the question playing or not playing. Sometimes, it seems to be a therapy. She is a young girl during the ww2, her piano teacher is sent to Auschwitz. It’s an important moment (some years later), when Wanda learns, what has happened with the Jews in Auschwitz.

She has a complicated relationship with her parents; it looks like her father doesn’t accept her talent and desire to play music. Her mother is a singer, but she gave up her career, when Wanda’s brother was born. Frank, the brother has Down Syndrome.

First I thought, this will be the secret, this will be the plot of this novel, to keep in secret his problem during the Nazi-era. But I was wrong, the secret is more pathetic. Although we reader can find out easily what is the secret, I wouldn’t mention it now. I would say only, it affects her career, she gives up with the piano playing, till the last chapter of the book, she starts to play again. (And her ex-husband is listening her outside of her house. It’s a bit sentimental and pathetic too.)

There are great moments in this novel, excellent chapters, but I think, it’s still a usual story about a life of an artist.