Born in 1879 and living until 1964, Alma Schindler Mahler
Gropius Werfel lived a long life. She lived through two world wars, outlasted
two husbands (Mahler and Werfel), divorced another one (Gropius), was constantly
unfaithful, drank too much, was a virulent anti-Semite despite marrying two
Jewish men and having affairs with many more, was emotionally abusive to pretty
much every one around her- especially her husbands, lovers, and children-,
thought Hitler had kind eyes, was self-deluded and self-aggrandizing, was a
great fan of the arts, and was greedy. Yet men of genius flocked to her.
Painters, writers, composers, architects, sculptors, conductors, politicians,
and more all became lovers or friends. And to be either of those things, you
had to be a vocal admirer. Any criticism of her and she was an enemy. So what
did this woman have that other women didn’t? I confess that I am no closer to
understanding that I was before reading the book.
She was physically attractive, but not exceptionally so. She
knew how to decorate a house and to throw a party. She had composed a few songs
described as ‘slight’ before meeting Mahler, who put an end to her composing Apparently she must have been a good
conversationalist, to have interested so many people. A number of her lovers
remained attracted to her long after their affairs were over- was she that good
in bed?
Was she a muse? Mahler, Gropius and Werfel were all pretty
well along in their careers when she met them, so they didn’t need to her
create. Werfel wrote a large number of plays and books after becoming Alma’s
husband, but part of that is because she demanded that he support her in the
style to which she was accustomed. To do most of his writing, he most often
fled to another city until he was finished with the project- those long
separations may possibly be why their marriage lasted so long.
It’s a mystery. I was rather revolted by the picture of Alma
that emerged from the book. Hilmes’s research is impeccable; he waded through boxes
of correspondence and diaries. Alma kept a rather thorough record of her life
and relationships, although she self-censored it at some point. That she destroyed
some diaries and letters is probably a good thing; as it was, her memoir, ‘En
Leben’ was so full of sex that it was sold from under bookstore counters like
pornography (bearing in mind that this was 1959). Her story is interesting-Alma
and Werfel’s escape from Europe as Hitler’s armies took over was enough to make
me hold my breath- but most of the book moves very slowly. Because of her
character, I can’t say I really enjoyed the book. Just as I thought she couldn’t
get any worse, she’d do or say something unforgivable. And yet, so many in her
life forgave her constantly.
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I received this book free from the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.
Neither of these things influenced my review.
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