The Courage Consort by Michel Faber

Mr Awkward Group Tensions

The Courage Consort by Michel Faber follows the seventh best a capella group in the world as they share a house in the Netherlands, practising an almost impossible piece of music.  It focuses on the awkward relationships and tensions between the group, with a bit of odd spooky cries in the forest added for good measure.

Content Warning: A very depressed narrator who obliquely discusses suicide.

Story  ☆☆★★★

The story, though short, is a pretty classically British one.  Five people who know each other moderately well are forced together in a small space, where a desperate need to be polite casts a thin veneer over the awkwardness of not really wanting to be there.  It's a premise that comes up in all classic British fiction genres.  You see it in Agatha Christie, in Alan Bennett, in Wodehouse -- the question is whether it can really sustain a story if that's all there is.

The difference in The Courage Consort is that the group are not in an English country house, but in Europe.  Faber's Dutch heritage shows with bemusement through his Dutch and German characters, bemused and bewildered by the forced British politeness of this ensemble.

Faber attempts to add what might be a supernatural twist to the story, as Catherine, the depressed wife of the Consort's self-appointed leader, hears cries from the nearby woods that no one else hears.  We are told that the woods are rumoured to be haunted, but nothing ever really comes of it and this element fizzles out.

Style  ☆★★★★

Although I described The Courage Consort as a novella, it really is a short story.  It's small, self contained, and a little difficult to understand on a first reading.  Which is where this reviewer misses out, as I dislike re-reads as a general rule, and therefore struggle with short stories.  There are lots of little avenues that, to me, seemed to be picked up and dropped, but may become more enlightening on a second or third read.  Knowing Faber's work, the complexity of it, that's almost certainly true.

The writing style itself is Faber at his most readable.  The third person narration follows Catherine most closely, but dips briefly into the brains of other characters -- particularly German Dagmar, the group's contralto -- to highlight the strangeness of British manners and mannerisms.

This was a one sitting read for me, in about two hours.  As well as being slender, the margins on the pages are huge, bringing to mind Eliott's The Wasteland in its own slender little volume, padded out by footnotes and introductions.  The Courage Consort is also included in some of Faber's short story volumes.

Substance  ☆☆★★★

On a single reading, there doesn't seem to be a great deal to The Courage Consort.  The story seems a bit arbitrary and not very interesting.  The ending is abrupt.  Not a lot is made out of things that seem like they should be important.  On a further read, however, I suspect these things would come together.  Proper studying of this text might prove rewarding, returning to it with questions from a first reading.  

Verdict  ☆☆★★★

As a short story (as opposed to a novella), The Courage Consort is a pretty good example of the form.  It is filled with interesting observations and a group of characters that each receive their own little arcs, their own quirks.  The real joy would come with re-reads and close study, which is not something I'm up for.  For anyone who enjoys a short story, there will be plenty to please in this slim volume.