14 書香人物 P E R S O N A L I T Y & B O O K S SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2008 • TAIPEI TIMES

[ HARDCOVER: US ] SUNDAY PROFILE Who needs hell when you have Wyoming? Schmalfuss and the ESO: making sweet music together The devil crops up as an interior designer in Annie Proulx’s latest batch of grim tales from the American west by Tim Adams the guardian, Annie Proulx has proved herself — with the unwieldy architec- ture of her novels Postcards and Accordion Crimes — to be some- thing of a sucker for an over- ambitious structure. She’s at it again here. She prefaces her third volume of Wyoming stories with a quote from John Clay’s My Life on the Range: “On the surface,” Clay observed of the American west, “everything was lovely, but when you got into the inside circle you soon found out that the lines of demarcation were plainly marked.” This innocuous observation resonates for Proulx, you are led to understand as this book unfolds, because of that Fine Just the Way It Is phrase “inside circle.” There are By Annie Proulx nine stories here, each of them hellish in different ways; the dust 221 pages bowl, having been so many things Fourth Estate to Proulx already, is here made to stand for her inferno. She makes this more explicit to pass on to her children; it is Gernot Schmalfuss is enthusiastic about his job as music director and chief conductor of Taiwan’s than she needs to by interspers- a much nastier story of a father ing her usual, surprising saddle- with four families in different cor- Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, the world’s only wholly-privately-funded orchestra sore realism with two tales told ners of the state, and of half-for- by Satan — Stygian satires in gotten sex crimes. In his 80s Ray By BRADLEY WINTERTON which the Prince of Darkness, still can’t handle it all, and neither Staff Reporter cast as an interior designer, can his granddaughter; “You’d dreams up new looks for eternal think there would have been damnation. Leafing through the closure by now,” she observes. love music, but sometimes “One of the results of being play it that way themselves the himself, but he was untypically Guardian, and assisted by his But this is Wyoming, and there I think I don’t understand privately funded,” he went on, second time, without having to be — and tantalizingly — reluctant to secretary Duane Fork, the devil never is: “Everything you ever did “I it. I can perhaps say why a “is that we have to develop our reminded. go into details. So I asked him if cooks up all kinds of torment: or said kept pace with you right to composer writes this or that note, own talents rather than rely on “Also, there’s none of the maybe they provided a recording tsunamis, global warming and e- the end.” This sense of a regional but that’s not understanding in the bringing in soloists from abroad, rivalry you sometimes find among opportunity for the ESO. mail havoc, in which he is happy family, inbred and in denial, way you understand the workings though the ESO has played with musicians. I was an oboist in an “Well, we do have plans to to see the world upstairs con- mostly silent about its past and its of, say, a machine. With music, many celebrated foreigners. And orchestra for many years, and I issue more CDs and DVDs, but spires. Down below, this being desires, is what makes Proulx’s unlike a machine, there are simply it’s true — the orchestra does know what can happen!” exactly what and when have Proulx, he has particular fun with state such an uncomfortable place so many mysteries.” play from the heart, not only Taiwan’s Evergreen Group yet to be worked out. We’re old cowboys, Butch Cassidy and to be. It’s what gave the authen- So said Gernot Schmalfuss last because it’s our duty, but also specializes in maritime transport, also thinking about opera the rest, “bowlegged men lolly- tic charge of transgression and week. He’s in every way a highly because that’s how the musicians air transport (including Eva Air) — and ballet too, in conjunction gagging near a boiling water hole” pathos to Brokeback Mountain. charismatic figure. You feel it the genuinely want to play. and the hotel business. The ESO with some of the local dance in Dis. He gets the Four Horse- The opening of Them Old Cowboy moment he begins to conduct his “Because they’re young, was founded six years ago, and companies.” men to ride them down, brand, Songs makes all that plain: “There Evergreen Symphony Orchestra they’re immensely enthusiastic. Schmalfuss has been its music In 2007 the ESO performed in rope and castrate them. is a belief that pioneers came into (ESO). His enthusiasm is manifest, Whenever we have a week free director since January of 2007. Los Angeles to a very enthusiastic These two stories are unnec- the country, homesteaded, lived and it’s hardly surprising that the from rehearsing for concerts It’s 70-strong, smaller than some critical reception. They’ve been essary for a couple of reasons: tough, raised a shoeless brood and sounds the orchestra produces are we play other scores, just for of the world’s great orchestras. invited back, but next month the silly ironies scupper the tone founded ranch dynasties. Some the sweetest, clearest and often the pleasure of it — Bruckner,  Photos courtesy of ESO But this smallness contributes to they’re going to Shanghai to of what is otherwise another did. But many more had short the most heartfelt to be heard for example, a composer who’s the special nature of its sound. give a concert in the 2,000-seat gutsy, exact collection of tales runs and were quickly forgotten.” anywhere in Taiwan. rather difficult to understand but In addition, as Schmalfuss Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and, moreover, the cartoon And there’s not much escape. “Take the fugue,” he who presents a challenge that the Working with such pointed out, if he needs more in Pudong. They’ll also provide torments of hell are nothing com- The last story here is also the continued. “There are rules for instrumentalists relish. players for a particular work, the musical accompaniment for pared to the daily lives Proulx best, not least for its title, which how to write one, but then you “We try to get close to the a“ young ensemble is a there’s no shortage of talented the opening of a new Evergreen depicts elsewhere with such a might describe the collection find Bach going in some totally heart of things. Working with instrumentalists in the Taipei area. building in the city. clear eye. Leaving aside those as a whole: Tits-up in a Ditch. different direction. Why? We can such a young ensemble is a dream because their desire Gernot Schmalfuss is himself Orchestral versions of embarrassing intruders, though, Dakotah believes she can get admire the end product, and we dream because their desire is the a celebrated oboist. As a member Taiwanese folk songs have always and concentrating on what away from the life she’s been can love it, but can we really say same as mine, to get to the inner is the same as mine, to get of the elite Consortium Classicum, been an important ingredient in Proulx does as well as anyone given by joining up, going to Iraq; we understand it? In the end it’s a heart of what we’re playing. We he’s recorded many chamber ESO concerts, and they constitute — simple human misery, with she finds love there for a while bit like religion. Who can honestly never actually reach the heart, of to the inner heart of what works for wind instruments by, the boarding music on Eva Air highly local understanding, and with fellow female recruit, Marnie say he understands God?” course. But sometimes, perhaps, among others, Haydn, Mozart, flights. Will they play Taiwanese singular description, there are — a self-conscious counterpoint The ESO receives no public we come near it.” we’re playing. Beethoven and Schubert. folk songs in Shanghai, I asked. plenty of vintage stories here. to Brokeback Mountain. But funding, but is instead the I asked him what the orches- He’s also known in the musical “Oh yes!” said Schmalfuss. She starts out, in Family Man, she has to come back of course, brainchild of the Evergreen tra’s particular strengths were. — Gernot Schmalfuss,” Evergreen world for having discovered some “But also Japanese, Indonesian 長榮集團 in that very real purgatory on and home is every bit as much a Group’s ( ) Chang “First of all, technique. Symphony Orchestra music lost scores by Antonio Casimir and Chinese ones as well.” earth, a western-themed retire- war zone as where she has been; Yung-fa Foundation. It’s the Everyone is able to play in all the Cartellieri, a contemporary of As I got up to go, Schmalfuss ment home, “furniture uphol- returning to familiar roads “she only wholly-privately-funded different musical styles. Secondly, director and chief conductor Beethoven who died young. said, “You can’t say Brahms is my stered in fabrics with geometric realized that every ranch she orchestra anywhere in the commitment. Thirdly, openness He’d been looking for them in favorite composer, or Bach, as ‘Indian’ designs, lampshades passed had lost a boy, lost them world. And if that isn’t enough of mind — they’re very quick to this. Their mastery of the baroque the libraries of castles and ducal some people do. I just like good sporting buckskin fringe.” Ray early and late, boys smiling, sure to mark it out as unique, it also accept new ideas. And finally, style was manifest, even though palaces for 10 years, he told music — and even not so good Forkenbrock is a former horse- in their risks, healthy, tipped out has an exceptionally youthful they’re more than willing to adapt a guest conductor, rather than me, and finally discovered two music as well!” He laughed. catcher and ranch-hand now of the current of life by liquor composition — something special their sound to the various require- Schmalfuss, was on the podium of his four symphonies. They’re Such honesty was typical of spending his days looking at the and acceleration, rodeo smash- even in Taiwan, where the ages ments of different kinds of music.” on that occasion. in a style that lies somewhere the man’s generous and tolerant high sierra in the distance. He ups, bad horses, deep irrigation of all orchestral musicians are far No one who heard the ESO’s “They also learn very quickly,” between Haydn and middle-period spirit, I thought. Small wonder, has a family history to tell to his ditches, tractor rollovers and below the global average. fabulous rendering of Bach’s B Gernot Schmalfuss continued. Beethoven, he said. They’d never then, that the sparkling ESO can eager granddaughter with her ‘unloaded’ guns ...” This is the “The ESO’s average age is Minor Mass last March, per- “If you give them a particular been played in modern times, and be guaranteed to provide such an tape recorder, but the history is territory Proulx stakes out for somewhere in the 20s, just as formed with the Taipei Philhar- direction for a certain passage therefore never recorded. enjoyable, and even rejuvenating, not the mythology of western herself. Who needs hell when you it is in a good football team,” monic Chorus and soloists, will early on, and that passage recurs, It appears that Schmalfuss actu- evening’s entertainment on a frontiersmen she hopes to be able have Wyoming? Schmalfuss told me smiling. doubt for a moment the truth of they remember what you said and ally bought these antique scores regular basis.

[ HARDCOVER: U S ] From a veteran journalist, a murder �t�h������������������riller on deadline As the bodies pile up in the newsroom, everyone from the beaten-down hack in the next cubicle to the scheming executive emerges as a potential suspect

By SETH MNOOKIN law, and he won a Pulitzer Prize Theodore S. Ratnoff, a tyranni- most pressing problem is figuring he had never written so much on end of the book Darnton’s respect NY Times News Service, New York for a series of dispatches he cal assistant managing editor, is out what to do about Elaine, his deadline.” for the life-and-death power of the John Darnton was 11 months old smuggled out to avoid censorship. discovered in a pool of blood on tedious “almost-live-in girlfriend.” In the solipsistic media world, written word is readily apparent: when his father, Byron Darnton, With this type of personal the newsroom floor. Ratnoff was He’s soon overwhelmed by much time has been spent tittering a pilfered paragraph from War was killed off the coast of New narrative, it’s no surprise that a reviled for his withering put- more immediate concerns, which about the real-life antecedents of and Peace leads to one character’s Guinea while covering World publisher signed Darnton to write a downs of the paper’s copy editors include catching a killer, staying characters like Edith Sawyer, a downfall, the novel’s denouement War II for . memoir about his father’s influence — “critical notes of Teutonic alive and navigating a nascent flir- floundering former hotshot who is brought about by a couple of His father’s sacrifice propelled on his own life. Darnton, however, exactitude” — and attached to the tation with Priscilla Bollingsworth, had done “a stint in Latin America, lines of Byron, and a crucial plot Darnton toward his own four- had a more difficult time writing editor’s spike sticking out of his the overeducated homicide detec- where, rumor had it, she bedded point stems from an epically decade career at the Times, a job about himself than he did about chest is a piece of paper with the tive assigned to the case (and an array of dictators and banana clumsy lead paragraph. that was filled with its fair share others, he has said, so he turned same two-word phrase Ratnoff one of the novel’s several cliched magnates, emerging pregnant with This always-present subtext, of adventure and excitement: In to this, his fifth novel, as a “kind used when he would fire off the characters). Ratnoff, it turns out, stories,” and Hickory Bosch, a along with Darnton’s palpable anx- 1977, while serving as the paper’s of avoidance book.” The result, a rare attaboy inquiring as to the was just the first of the killer’s disgraced former executive editor iety about the threats to modern West African correspondent, he murder mystery that unfolds in the author of a particularly advanta- victims, and as the bodies pile up who “settled in an old saltbox , brings him closer to was jailed and then expelled from newsroom of a thinly disguised geous headline: “Nice. Who?” in the newsroom, everyone from cottage on the shore of Cape Fear, the intent of his original task than , a turn of events that was family-run broadsheet headquar- The story of Ratnoff’s murder is the beaten-down hack in the next where he indulged his passion for it appears at first. Fittingly, his bit- least partly the result of his friend- tered near Times Square, is a assigned to Jude Hurley, a 35-year- cubicle to the scheming executive clamming.” That manner of insider tersweet nostalgia for a bygone era ship with the marijuana-loving satirical roman a clef that draws in old metro reporter who lives in in the boardroom emerges as a arcana shouldn’t intimidate the in journalism — one that Darnton Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. equal parts from Elmore Leonard an East Village walk-up with his potential suspect. civilians out there; you don’t need and his father both embodied, in Two years later, when the and Evelyn Waugh. German shepherd-Irish setter mix. Throughout, Darnton does to have spent a lifetime obsessed their own ways — is captured best Ugandan dictator was When the book opens, the Hurley, like his progenitor, is an a wonderful job capturing the with media gossip to enjoy this in a toast offered up by Jimmy driven from power, Darnton was New York Globe is fighting for its old-school romantic, a shoe-leather BLACK AND WHITE AND DEAD ALL OVER nerve-jangling excitement and any more than you need to know Pomegranate, a Falstaffian scribe on the scene, poking around in the survival, with the bean counters reporter who gets off on “the ulcer-inducing tension that come that Woody Allen was referencing with “the self-regard of Orson By John Darnton deposed strongman’s basement on the business side pushing for adrenaline rush of working on dead- with chasing a big, breaking story. Fellini’s Amarcord to appreciate Welles” and a passport that’s been refrigerator to see if he really did staff cuts and a crass New Zea- line and nailing a story just right” 351 pages One of the nicest grace notes in the opening scenes of Annie Hall. stamped in 182 countries: keep human hearts on ice. (He land media mogul named Lester and who clings to the quaint belief Alfred A. Knopf a book full of them comes after a Black and White and Dead “Here’s to us didn’t.) He was in Poland for the Moloch plotting a takeover. Those that a journalist’s job is “to afflict close call, when Hurley realizes All Over is above everything else “Who’s like us? birth of the Solidarity movement existential threats to the paper’s the comfortable and comfort the that he had “never come that close a page-turner, but there’s also a “Damned few and the establishment of martial identity seem less pressing after afflicted.” When the novel opens, his to death. But even more trying, message contained therein. By the “And they’re all dead.”