The Master
by Colm Toibin
Picador $232
Colm Toibin cites early last century as the only period in which Henry James might have accepted his homosexuality. Toibin's novel follows the writer in the years immediately before that period, when his work waned before his last spurt of genius. He depicts a sexually tense friendship between James and Hendrik Andersen, a young Norwegian sculptor. When Anderson enters James' study to find a library of books by the middle-aged author, he asks whether James had always known he would write: ''Did you not once plan it all? Did you not say this is what I will do with my life?''
'By the time he asked the second question, Henry had turned away from him and was facing towards the window with no idea why his eyes had filled with tears.'
No further explanation for the tears is offered. Toibin skips to later that night. James is in bed, pensively imagining Anderson's body. Toibin crisply describes the floorboards creaking while the younger man undresses in the next bedroom. But he avoids spelling out deeper sentiments, leaving us to assume that the sudden emotion in the library was a bolt of the solitude, failure and untapped desire James endured for his work. Toibin is always careful to let the reader imagine the mind of James.