A fictional biography of Dmitri Shostakovich - written more as an autobiography, or at least as an "omnipresent narrator" voice.
On one side, it is an examination of the choices and pressures an artist faces in a totalitarian system, an examination of the perceived role of art in such a society vs. the artist's own vision of his path.
A portrayal of the mediocrity that such a system engenders and rewards. The muddled thinking that grows out of a totalitarian mythology (Americans suffer from the same kind of muddled thinking due to mythology...)
Another side of the book is again about aging, and how aging changes how you perceive yourself and the world around you. Again rather depressing - the best that can be said is that you survive...
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