Beethoven's Last Symphony by Sudanand - A Future Classic?

There is a popular saying that goes like this - when death pays his visit to take you with it, the whole life’s memory flashes before your eyes. But what happens when one is cursed by eternal youth, seeing everyone they have loved and cared for die before them, and live long enough to see the development of humanity from the Neolithic era to the modern day? Every human being you have touched, see them getting old and become a figment of memories. Will the curse be burdensome for them or it will become a guiding light for humanity?

An unfinished manuscript, halted in the second part, probably holding the family secrets, identities and truths of humankind. The author is unknown, long lost, dead, forgotten, erased except for a clue; an engraved name’s initials. Can a high schooler teen bring the author’s vision and link her family history together in this voyage of finding the meaning of humankind as a whole? A historical line needs to be drawn by the writers here; to question the theological aspects.

Set in pre-pandemic Malaysia, Sudanand’s Beethoven’s Last Symphony takes us on a journey through linguistic diversities and a complete literary discourse on Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Greek, Latin and English. It is a saga of history that needs to be untold. But what’s the connection of Beethoven with this saga? From a musical perspective, it is quite confusing, but in a literal sense, it holds a deeper metaphorical and allegorical meaning, that transcends from the physical state to the metaphysical realm. Here Beethoven is none other than a sparrow, to know why the title is like that you need to read the complete story.

Divided into three segments BLS is a trilogy in its true form and the mastery lies in the author’s dedication to maintaining the different voices and linguistic style over the periods. From the early civilization to the 21st century, BLS follows two main protagonists Zoey and Eyos-Helena-Hebe (Eve). While Zoey’s life follows the discovery of truths, her family’s history, identity and optimism; Eyos’s life follows the curse of eternal youth. Her three names represent three goddesses; Eyos (dawn/birth), Helena (Beauty/Youth), Hebe (the prime); and follow the overall life cycle of humankind from its inception to modern-day developments.

Sudanand’s BLS is ‘books inside a book’, where a reader can find three writers altogether; or even four considering your beliefs in the existence of a creator entity or not. The manuscript which is in the focus follows Eyos' journey and is titled ‘Timeless Love’. The first part of the book, follows the tale of an early civilization, the formation of early settlements, colonies, humanity, clan structure and differentiation between clans and tribes. There are multiple lores inspired by the tribe lores, some of them can be found in the African clans or we can read in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The final phase in part one comes to a halt after Eyos traverses through two separate clan lives and discovers the truth behind the myth.

The second part follows Helena’s journey in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman period which is flooded with outstanding philosophers and anarchists. Part two delves deep into philosophical lessons, the battle of ideology, philosophy, stoicism, and understanding of the world. It strikes Helena’s past and how she became the goddess of dawn for the mass. This part represents the ideal Greco-Roman tragedy and the blending of Shakespearean narratives to its finest form. The second part too comes to a halt portraying the eternal curse Helena has bore. She indeed became an eternal entity.

But here came a brief pause, there was no third part in the manuscript. An unfinished manuscript with unlimited questions that need to be answered. Now Zoey needs to finish writing it by herself; the story is not just a fictional writeup as it holds her family’s long-lost secret. The identity of Beethoven and drawing the whole family tree is just a matter of time now. But Beethoven is gone, just like he came into existence in a sparrow form, he evaporated in the fine air, as if never existed. Part three shifted to modern-day Italy to connect all the dots of Zoey’s own family and to complete the eternal voyage of Eyos-Helena-Hebe.

To put the book under a particular genre will be a tough job. It has touched multiple genres and subgenres within its 500+ pages, ranging from mystery, magical realism, science, history, psychology, sociology, and most importantly it delves deep into philosophy and theology. A continuous battle between old-school thoughts and modernism, philosophy and morality, system and culture, the age-old feuds between believers and non-believers, justice and sins are evident.

Multiple commentaries can be found between pages through literary narratives, ranging from ideologies and organized religion to the commodification of human faith, death and life, existential dilemma, different schools of thought, and Christian allegory and theology. One of the major commentaries can be found in the concept of marriage and the custom of representing the womb as a vessel to sow the seeds of future generations.

Eyos bore the curse of eternal youth, and in the end, she deserved the happy ending. Both Zoey and Sudanand didn’t disappoint her in attaining the peace and transcending to the realm she deserved over the passage of time. Sudanand’s Beethoven’s Last Symphony is probably the best book I have read this year. Just take a month or a couple of weeks to slowly savour the book, as it is filled with philosophical discourses that will make you think about human emotion, angst, and the idea of optimism.

Beethoven’s Last Symphony by Sudanand Daniel Rajan : A future classic? - Possible!