Fiddle Fiction: Summer Reading for String Players
You’ve stuffed your music in its bag and packed extra strings. You’ve got your plane ticket and rental car arranged. Music stand? Check. Rosin? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Swimsuit? Check. Summer books? Uh-oh.
Never fear. We’ll have you stocked up for your summer trip in no time—but not with ponderous composer biographies or nonfiction tomes by music pedagogues. If your appetite for music extends to novels, I’d like to let you in on a nearly decade-old obsession of mine. I’ve always been on the lookout for high-quality contemporary fiction, and it can take some perseverance to hunt down the best stories by the most talented writers. About eight years ago, when I was reviewing books for the Orlando Sentinel, a review copy of John Hersey’s Antonietta landed on my desk. I read and enjoyed this fictional account of the life and times of a Stradivari violin. A coworker then suggested I check out Frank Conroy’s Body and Soul, the story of a boy who is a piano prodigy.
So began my collection of novels featuring music as a theme, or musicians as the main characters. Today, that collection takes up one full bookshelf. Some are great books, others are just OK; a few are simply wretched. Here are reviews of some novels in which music or musicians play a role, whether major or minor. There’s something here for everybody—the themes range from mystery to surrealism to romance. (This is not a comprehensive list, so if you have other music-themed novels to recommend, please let us know.) Except where noted, the books are available in paperback, which should help to keep your suitcase light and your travel budget intact.
In Body and Soul, by Frank Conroy (Dell Publishing, $11.95), it’s post–World War II Manhattan. Six-year-old Claude Rawlings sits in the dim light of a basement apartment at a white piano, picking out sounds he has heard on the radio. So begins this sweeping, satisfying novel that traces the development of a prodigy into an artist and takes the reader from the lonely world of a genius working amid squalor to the playgrounds of the rich. Conroy sweeps you along with Claude as the boy discovers the joys of music, and you can’t wait to find out what happens next. One of the best, most compelling music stories around.
Once in awhile, a novel comes along that turns me into an evangelist, imploring anyone within earshot to read it. Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis De Bernieres (Vintage Books, $13), is one of these. This tale, set during World War II on the idyllic Greek island of Cephallonia, follows the lives of the island inhabitants as they try to deal with an occupying force of hapless Italian soldiers led by the irrepressible Captain Corelli. The characters are beautifully drawn and the detail is stunning. I laughed, I cried. This is great movie material, complete with five-star ending. I gave my paperback copy away and bought it in hardcover, because it’s a keeper.
In Solo Variations, by Cassandra Garbus (E.P. Dutton, $23.95, hardcover), 26-year-old Gala, a gifted oboist who began her music studies at age six and ultimately graduated from Juilliard, is struggling through a series of failed auditions, crippling performance anxiety, and the crumbling of her parents’ marriage. As if that weren’t enough, she must stand by and watch as her violinist boyfriend wins a choice spot with a famous quartet and her best friend continually surpasses her in auditions. This is a hip look at one Gen-X artist’s search for identity and renewal. There’s some fine writing here, but if you like your heroine to emerge triumphant in the final movements, you might be disappointed.
The short-story collection The Music, by James Hamilton-Paterson (Jonathan Cape/Random House, $10), is tough to find but worth a special order. Written by the author of Gerontius, a fictional account of Elgar’s journey to the Amazon, these stories focus on creativity, tradition, and loss. A love of music unites the tales and each has its own musical theme. In one, an escaped lunatic who thinks he is Schumann interrupts a quiet family picnic and introduces a crazy note into a child’s life. Another particularly lovely story serves as a parable of the relationship between innovation and tradition as a Chinese master instructs his pupil in the music of nature. And one hilarious tale mocks censorship and academia, as a composer in a workers’ state must decode hidden subversion in a new national anthem.
The saga Antonietta, by John Hersey (Vintage Books, $11), covers 300 years in the life of a bewitching violin, the "Antonietta" Strad. The story opens in the Cremona atelier of Antonio Stradivari, who has fallen in love with a widow who captivates him as she strolls across the stones of the piazza, shawl tassels swaying. The woman inspires Stradivari to create the alluring "Antonietta," whose voice causes anyone within earshot to swoon. Over the years, the violin crosses paths with Mozart, Berlioz, and Stravinsky—as well as less savory characters. As a violinist and a fan of Hersey’s writing, I enjoyed this fanciful, musical novel.
Kazuo Ishiguro, the author of The Remains of the Day, has turned in a surrealistic, Kafkaesque tale with his The Unconsoled (Vintage Books, $14). Its main character is a world-renowned pianist named Ryder who has come to an unnamed city to present a major concert. But after arriving, Ryder finds himself in a dreamscape; he remembers little about where he is and how he came to be there. The people seem familiar but he can’t recall meeting them. However, they all know him, which contributes to his bewilderment. This is an intriguing psychological mystery that satirizes the cult of high art, and as Ryder is diverted on a seemingly endless series of pointless errands, one gets the sense of a man whose professional life has spiraled out of control. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.
