The Vexations

By: Caitlin Horrocks

Narrated by: Marisa Calin

A kaleidoscopic debut novel about love, family, genius, and the madness of art, circling the life of eccentric composer Erik Satie and La Belle Époque Paris, from a writer who is "wildly entertaining" (San Francisco Chronicle), "startlingly ingenious" (Boston Globe), and "impressively sharp" (New York Times Book Review).

Erik Satie begins life with every possible advantage. But after the dual blows of his mother's early death and his father's breakdown upend his childhood, Erik and his younger siblings - Louise and Conrad - are scattered. Later, as an ambitious young composer, Erik flings himself into the Parisian art scene, aiming for greatness but achieving only notoriety.

As the years, then decades, pass, he alienates those in his circle as often as he inspires them, lashing out at friends and lovers like Claude Debussy and Suzanne Valadon. Only Louise and Conrad are steadfast allies. Together they strive to maintain their faith in their brother's talent and hold fast the badly frayed threads of family. But in a journey that will take her from Normandy to Paris to Argentina, Louise is rocked by a severe loss that ultimately forces her into a reckoning with how Erik - obsessed with his art and hungry for fame - will never be the brother she's wished for.

With her buoyant, vivid reimagination of an iconic artist's eventful life, Caitlin Horrocks has written a captivating and ceaselessly entertaining novel about the tenacious bonds of family and the costs of greatness, both to ourselves and to those we love.

©2019 Caitlin Horrocks (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"I've loved Caitlin Horrocks's work for a long time, so I am not surprised - though I am overjoyed - to find that she has written a gorgeous, sensitive, deeply immersive novel in The Vexations. You'll never hear the music of Erik Satie again without diving back into the layers of genius, torment, eccentricity, abandonment, and profound sadness that Horrocks so masterfully evokes in this beautiful book." (Lauren Groff, National Book Award finalist and New York Times best-selling author of Fates and Furies and Florida)

"Horrocks paints an atmospheric portrait of bohemian Paris and a poignant one of Satie and his avant-garde circle, who 'lived in the yet: not now, but soon' when their art would be recognized...Finely written and deeply empathetic, a powerful portrait of artistic commitment and emotional frustration." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Horrocks shines while envisioning Erik scoring a silent film, debuting a masterpiece, or being released from jail (where he was held for defaming a reviewer) so he can complete a commission. Horrocks's description of Satie's music is also apt for her noteworthy novel: slow, spare, and at its best finely filigreed." (Publishers Weekly)

Beautifully written!

I loved how expansive and detailed this story is - huge character arcs told in small, complex scenes. The writing is beautiful and playful and such a pleasure to read. Highly recommend!

the not so belle epoque

This is a thoroughly depressing book. It is hard to portray the creative furnace that was the Belle Epoque in Paris in an overwhelmingly negative light, but the author has managed to do so. It turns out our favorite artistic heroes were self loathing, self pitying, and unenlightened, or else cruel and unenlightened. The thrust of the work is the interminable spooling out of their sad, even hopeless lives. Where are the art, creative energy, and joy that defined the era? Alas, at the wayside.