‘Waiting for Sunrise’ by William Boyd
I must admit that, prior to purchasing this book, I did not know a great deal about the author, William Boyd. I knew that he was English, and the author of several bestselling novels, most notably Any Human Heart, which has since been turned into a TV series. Otherwise my knowledge of the author was scanty, and I have to say that, even after reading Waiting for Sunrise, his latest novel, I am still none the wiser. Objectively speaking, Waiting for Sunrise is a well-structured and meticulously arranged novel, but what it boasts of in plot and scope it most conspicuously lacks in heart or soul of any kind. Allow me to explain...
Published just this month through Bloomsbury, Waiting for Sunrise is set amidst the early stages of the First World War, with the majority of the action taking place in Vienna and London. The novel tells the tale of one Lysander Rief, a well-heeled British actor who speaks several languages (English, French, and German) fluently, and who therefore has all the makings of, gasp, a spy hunter! We first meet Lysander ahead of the war, in Vienna, where he has fled in search of a cure for his troublesome anorgasmia - i.e. his inability to achieve orgasm, not to be confused with erectile dysfunction, of course. Somewhere between his first appointment with an eminent Vienna-based psychoanalyst (not Freud), and his illicit trysts with English sculptress Hettie Bull, Lysander is cured of his anorgasmia and at some point, though I cannot be sure when, he becomes embroiled in all manner of reconnaissance activity.
I was prompted to buy Waiting for Sunrise after reading a feature in the March issue of British Vogue which mentioned that the novel dealt with psychiatry and, most crucially, the psychoanalytic school of psychology. I have always been very interested in such subjects and so I made a point of buying the book as soon as it was published. Unfortunately, such subject matter is only crucial to the first 100 or so pages of the novel; thereafter it simply becomes a wartime spy thriller of sorts, which is wonderful if you like spy thrillers but not so ideal if you're in search of something slightly more cerebral.
This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in February 2012.